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Avoiding the "Metric-Centric" Trap on the Journey Towards Being "Customer-Centric"

By Jeannie Walters, CCXP posted 05-05-2015 08:28 PM

  

Raj Sivasubramanian from ebay tackled this subject as part of the discussions at the CXPA Insight Exchange.

When it comes to Customer Experience, ebay has been advanced in gaining executive support and investment. But the culture has always been very goal-oriented and metric-centric. There have been learnings about how to pull yourself out of the issues around being that metric-centric.

Simplified view of customer-centricity:

  1. Robust customer experience metrics
  2. Taking action on customer feedback
  3. Customer focused culture

It all leads to the Journey Towards Customer Centricity. (It's a journey, not a destination!)

It's easy to lose focus on why you invested in customer-centricity in the first place. The metrics can become more important than the WHY of it.

Warning Signs/Questions:

1. Who are your primary internal customers of VoC data?

Departments who main function is reporting? OR Departments who can improve the customer experience? 

If the VoC data isn't driving actual behavior, and not just meeting the needs of executive stakeholders, then you might be metric-centric!

  2. What do your customer insights reports look like?

They could be full of information, but if the stakeholders are really just caring about random metrics to meet INTERNAL goals, then you might be metric-centric.

3. What role do customer metrics play in your performance goal setting process?

Are customer metrics being used as performance goals AND are they sparking the right types of conversations? If debates break out about what the dominator should be, rather than what to do about poor performance, then you might be metric-centric!

The good news is using goals and metrics around the customer experience means someone cared enough about customers to start tracking! BUT...the goals and metrics should absolutely drive the right conversations, actions and results!

Breaking out of the "Metric-Centric" Trap!

  • Taking action on customer feedback

The main deliverable of a 50-page slide deck on the quarterly NPS report was emailed and not driving action. 

NOW: 2-3 Slides focused and customized for departments based on what they could actually act on for the customers. They call it a "Customized Care Package" at ebay.

It's important to understand that no insight is too simple or obvious!

For example, accurate shipping delivery estimates were more important than free shipping and delayed shipping. It may seem obvious, but this was presented to the shipping team, and it was an important insight to help them move their actions toward the right business decisions.

Prioritizing short-term agile surveys will allow you to let customers weigh in on iterative changes for new products. Ebay did this with developing gift cards, live auctions and ebay Valet. In the case of ebay Valet, they relaunched again based on customer feedback to improve the initial experience.

Asking how would you feel is ebay did this AND how would you feel if ebay did NOT to it? This helps determine a framework to evaluate the impact of product changes on customer satisfaction. 

Convince your employees to "be the customer" and use your own product! Ebay held a contest to see which teams could buy and sell the most. Doing this helps all your employees learn about pain points which otherwise might go unnoticed or unlearned. This will lead to innovation and a more customer-centric viewpoint throughout the organization.

Providing employees a variety of options to both hear from and interact with customers also increases customer focus. At ebay, this includes:

  • Monthly Promoter Comments Email - sharing the positive feedback verbatim
  • Customer Service Call Recordings with Visual Call Flow - not just a recording!
  • Detractor Call-Back Program 
  • Interactive Sessions on Message Boards

(All these programs encourage employees who otherwise might not have an opportunity to interact directly with customers have the chance to do so in controlled settings.)

Getting to customer-centricity is a long road with many challenges along the way. Yield to common sense! It's important to stay focused when operations get in the way. Perhaps a VP of Common Sense role is needed in the corporate world!? 

CX professionals are the ones closest to the customer voice. It's important to play the role of VP of common sense when data and metrics discussions aren't actually driving improvements for real customers!

 

 

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