MC: 0:00

Experience Action. Let's stop just talking about customer experience, employee experience and the experience of leaders. Let's turn ideas into action. Your host, Jeannie Walters, is an award-winning customer experience expert, international keynote speaker and founder of Experience Investigators, a strategic consulting firm helping companies increase sales and customer retention through elevated customer experiences. Ready set action.

Jeannie Walters: 0:31

The world is moving at lightning speed, and if you're a customer experience professional, it can feel even faster than that. I'm Jeannie Walters. I'm here to answer your questions and let me say we've got a good one today. So, speaking of speed, let's jump in.

Listener Question: 0:48

Hey, Jeannie this is Matt. Looking into the future, I feel like customer expectations are evolving faster than we can keep up with. So what should we be paying attention to now to stay ahead of those changes?

Jeannie Walters: 1:00

Oh, we've all felt this right. The world is moving so quickly. We have different expectations today than we did yesterday, a week ago or a year ago. Some of those innovations that we thought were so amazing at the time, those are table stakes now. So what are we to do? How can we not only keep up with expectations, but stay ahead of them so that we're one step ahead? We're one step ahead of our customers, our competitors, and we're providing the types of environments that help our employees and workplaces thrive?

Jeannie Walters: 1:36

It's not just about knowing expectations. It's about listening and learning and watching for those all-important signals. Let's jump into what those are. First thing I want to say is we need to watch behavior, not just feedback.

Jeannie Walters: 1:52

Now, anybody who's been on this journey with me for a while knows that I don't believe in one magic metric. There is no one indicator that's going to tell you how humans will behave in the future. That's because humans are a little irrational. We don't make a lot of sense. We make decisions based on emotions. Then we rationalize them later. So while we might say things like, yeah, my New Year's resolution is going to the gym every day, we believe that in the moment, but our behavior doesn't reflect that. So what I want you to think about is what are those moments of behavior that we should look at, that we should see what's going on exactly and what our customers are telling us through their actions.

Jeannie Walters: 2:35

Places to look. Where are customers abandoning the journey? Where are they leaving you? That can give you a big indicator about maybe something not being offered that they want or something not going as smoothly as they want. Now, remember your competitors are not just in your industry. Your competition is simply everywhere that customers interact. As human beings, our expectations go up when we see that as a customer wow, I can get free overnight shipping from them. Why aren't you giving that to me retailer? Why aren't you doing that for me B2B vendor? So we have to remember that when we are seeing behavior, they might be telling us this isn't enough. So don't just rely on what they're telling you, but make sure you're looking at how they're behaving. Another place to look is self-service. How are those tools getting traction or not? Are we giving customers what they need in those moments when they want to feel empowered and take things on? And really, what are the channels that they're gravitating towards? A lot of customers are telling us they prefer text over calls, but they still want that option. So what is their behavior telling us? Look for all those signals within the context of what you are offering and what you are trying to achieve with your customers. Think of behavior as ways that customers are telling you things without verbalizing them.

Jeannie Walters: 4:04

We also want to really think about how can we make AI an experience multiplier. A lot of the talk around artificial intelligence right now is around cost savings. It's around things like reducing the cost of labor in efforts to achieve efficiency. But if it's not about an effort to achieve a better experience for the customer, then we will be disappointing them. There is no doubt that AI is here. There is no doubt that customers pretty much expect things to be fast and personalized and emotionally resonant. AI can actually help us do that if it's strategically implemented. We, as the customer experience professionals, have to continuously advocate for AI to be an experience multiplier and not just about efficiency or cost. So think about when to use those AI powered tools. Now we've talked about some of the examples out there how Amazon uses it to make a suggested next purchase that makes sense, that is relevant to the customer. You might think about how you can keep customers more proactively informed. If they're expecting a delivery and it's going to be delayed. AI can be great at generating and sending those communications. We also want to look for ways to make things human feeling and to make sure that humans have a way out of those AI journeys if they want them. So, specifically around chatbots if we can make the chatbot show a little emotion, feel conversational, customers will tell us that it's working for them. They appreciate the speed, they appreciate that the bot can find data very quickly. They appreciate all that, but it's when they're in those loops that they can't get out of, where it's not answering their question, it's not understanding them and they don't have an escape hatch. We need to make sure that we provide that for customers along the AI journey. But ask the question are we using AI to reduce friction, to create more seamless and personalized experiences, or are we only talking about it in the context of cutting expenses? Because if it's the latter, we are probably not using it to create a better experience for our customers.

Jeannie Walters: 6:25

All right, let's talk about the idea of agility. You've probably heard that many organizations talk about the need to be agile. We need to be agile and adaptive and responsive in real time, and all of that is absolutely true. But in today's world, we also have to apply the idea of agility to our customer and their journey. They are not staying in one place. They are not necessarily expecting the same journey over and over again. So what can we do to match that agility? Well, one is to make sure that we are keeping our journeys up to date by looking at things like behavior and feedback and leveraging AI to really dig into those insights in a faster way. Using real-time data, using real-time feedback to coach people in the moment. So if our customers are running into something and having a bad experience, we can actually step in while it's happening, instead of waiting for that feedback to arrive. There are all sorts of ways that there are tools that are helping us with this. But really applying the idea of being both agile internally and then looking for ways that we can match our customers' agility that's a mindset shift as well. So make sure that you're communicating about agility in what you're doing today within your organization.

Jeannie Walters: 7:49

I would also encourage us to think about what we offer our customers in a more modular way. Make sure that they have choices. They can put together the package that works for them, because they will, with or without our products. That's what they're telling us. There are so many options now. Think about what's happened with how we consume media, how we watch TV. When we hear about people who only have streaming services, now that they put together, we don't bat an eye. But that would have been very foreign a few years ago. That's because customers are creating their own packages for what works for them. They are personalizing the experience with a piece from one brand and another piece from another. So make sure that, if you are trying to offer all of those services, allow them that choice. Allow them to put their own packages together.

Jeannie Walters: 8:42

That's how we can match the agility with our customers and then really constantly think about what does value really mean to our customer? It's not just about price. It's not just about being sensitive to cost. Value is about feeling like not only did I get what I paid for, but I feel good about it. I feel like this is something that is going to make my life better. This is true in B2B and nonprofit and everything else too. So don't talk yourself out of that. Don't think that if you're in one of those groups, this doesn't apply to you.

Jeannie Walters: 9:18

And then we also want to make sure that, as we look to the future, we have to think about the next generations, and they are already sending some pretty strong signals that they are redefining what loyalty looks like. They are redefining the word trust between brands and customers, and this shows up in a very big way when it comes to values. The generations that are coming up into being the lead consumers Generation Z and then Generation Alpha. They are telling us that they only want to work with organizations that align with their values. So what does that mean? That means we have to be more open about that. We have to stand up for who we are and let people gravitate to us. Now, does this mean that we cannot be all things to all people? Yes, that is absolutely what it means, but we've never been able to do that. We've never been able to be all things to all people. Now we just have to say this is what we stand for, this is who we are, and this is how we're going to show up for you, no matter what.

Jeannie Walters: 10:24

This is why you've heard me talk about the idea of a customer experience mission statement so many times, because if you can align your brand values, with what your customers are expecting and make sure that, no matter where they are in the journey, they're getting that consistent experience with who you are, not just what you sell. That is so important to the customer experience of today and tomorrow. So look for those signals that the younger generations are sending about how they want to interact and then start acting on it now. Start experimenting, start trying things, because they will be here before we know it. Everything is moving faster, and the last thing I'll say here is if you don't already see customer experience as a strategic imperative of your organization, then, frankly, you're probably falling behind. Now you've heard me talk about how customer experience within your organization is really a mindset, a strategy and a business discipline.

Jeannie Walters: 11:29

If you are ignoring that last piece, if you are not centralizing your data, if you are not having that cross-functional leadership, if you are not really looking at the customer journey end-to-end in a holistic way, then you will be disappointing your customers. You will be disappointing them to the point where it will show up in their behavior when they go to your competition, when they leave the journey, when they give you a bad review. That's because we aren't owning the journey in the way that we need to, and the only way we can do that is if we approach customer experience as a strategic imperative in our organization. So you, as a customer experience professional, as a customer experience change agent, I would love to hear about how you are moving forward and making sure that you are encouraging that mindset of change, of curiosity, of innovation. This is when I want you to be a customer experience investigator. This is when we want to get really curious about our customers, about what they're expecting and about how to move forward with them. If we can come to this work with curiosity and humility, we will see things that others will miss and that can be a strategic advantage as well.

Jeannie Walters: 12:49

So keep up the great work, make sure that you're looking ahead and if you have a question, don't forget you can ask me anytime at AskJeannie. VIP. Now, if you're thinking I don't know where to start, I don't know what to do, may I point you to CXIMembershipcom. That's where we have all of our on-demand resources. We have live events, we have community. We have all sorts of things at the ready for you. So check that out at cximembershipcom and I hope to see you there. Thanks for joining me. We'll see you next time. To learn more about our strategic approach to experience, check out free resources at experienceinvestigatorscom, where you can sign up for our newsletter, our Year of CX program and more, and please follow me, Jeannie Walters, on LinkedIn.