General CX

How CX evolves over time

Businesses are living things. They start off small, add skills and expertise, make a few missteps, and work towards success and improvement. Every business team has to evolve to meet new needs and adapt to their industry’s and discipline’s changing standards. CX is no different. 

In this article, we’ll discuss why CX needs to continuously evolve and what you can do to encourage that growth. In an upcoming series, we’ll talk about the actual stages of CX maturity and how you can move up from your current level. But for now, let’s focus on why CX growth matters.

Why CX evolves

Organizational changes

A few businesses start out being very customer-centric, but that’s not the case for the majority. Often, organizations are initially more focused on their product or service and on gaining traction. Only as the business starts to grow does CX pop up on the radar.

This is natural; we all begin with limited resources. In the early stages of business growth, the entire organization might be 2 or 3 or 10 people. It’s easier to communicate and adjust on the fly.

But then the organization grows and the product starts to gain a following. Different departments spring up. Tracking the customer experience across the entire lifecycle becomes challenging. Interestingly, it’s at this point that some companies start to struggle – despite their apparent success. They don’t have the systems and infrastructure in place to meet their growth.

In this situation, the needs of the organization have changed. If CX wasn’t built into the company plans, it’s likely going to be a little more challenging to implement and sustain it. But CX growth is very doable – and worthwhile. We often talk with business leaders in this situation who are just recognizing that something’s not scaling in their customer-facing processes; this is exactly when calling in a CX consultant can make a huge difference.

Tech changes

This is one of the areas where CX and marketing have a bit of an overlap – in circumstances if not in their objectives.  The marketing industry has changed drastically over the last 10 years because technology has grown. Both CX teams and marketing teams have access to more data and faster, easier ways to mine and analyze it. There are more ways to connect with customers. There’s more of everything: touchpoints, options, and speed.

This is a double-edged sword. It’s great in terms of what we can do, but it’s challenging in terms of what customers now expect. As a case in point, compare customers’ expectations around complaint response times. When most complaints were handled via phone or email, a 24-hour wait was standard. Now, customers expect 24-7 support through chatbots – and equally quick resolutions through human chat agents if the bot can’t provide the answer. CX has to grow simply to keep up with the speed of technical innovation.

Customer changes

Finally, customers’ changing needs can also drive CX maturity. We’ve touched on one of the reasons – i.e. tech-related changes.

But customers can also change their attitudes and habits in ways that have nothing to do with technology. The example here is the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2018, did any of us think that wearing masks and providing contactless service options would matter to the average customer? I don’t think anyone did, but as we saw, circumstances changed and that became tremendously important.

How to drive CX maturity

Growth is a natural process. But sometimes, you may feel that your CX capabilities aren’t growing fast enough to keep up with your company or customer needs. What can you do to promote CX maturity?

Of course, every business will have unique circumstances. However, we’ve found these general best practices can build respect and enthusiasm for CX growth.

• Advocate for CX change. Take the initiative. Help company and department leaders understand what needs to be done using concrete terms and realistic ideas. It’s often easier to start with smaller ‘quick-win’ initiatives that demonstrate the value of CX and then leverage that momentum for bigger projects.

• Pitch the business benefits. Instead of talking about how much the customers will benefit, translate this into terms your audience will care about. Yes, the customer will be happier, but emphasize the cost savings or revenue growth that will result from that happiness. Refer to our earlier article on using ‘why’ to gain CX buy-in for more details.
• Leverage expert advice. If you don’t have the in-house capability to implement your CX ideas, CX consultants can help you put the systems, processes, and people in place to ensure long-term success. A few months of expert guidance will save you time, money, and frustration.

Finally, don’t be afraid of CX growth. Don’t feel guilty or ‘lesser than’ if your CX isn’t where you want it to be. We all have to change and grow, and we all start from where we are and work with what we have. Even the smallest improvement is better than sitting still. You can do this!