A true customer-centric transformation focuses on the customer’s true needs and the solutions are designed around their needs. This can often focus on reconsidering a business model or how a company is run and it is sad that this is the only proper way to gain true transformation and remain relevant (Ralph Breuer, McKinsey). But oftentimes just rethinking the IT and making improvements around this area can affect the way a business interacts with its customers. The most important parts of a successful customer-experience transformations are: setting clear goals and objectives, creation and execution of a realistic strategy and bringing together a team to make it all work. Having a simple framework does not mean that the process of customer-experience transformations is an easy task. A change of any kind needs an effective leadership, attention to detail and commitment and investment of time. When a company has a clear view of its objectives and how to achieve them, it is easier to make sustainable decisions effectively and coordinate activities accordingly.

To gain true customer satisfaction, it is often necessary to rethink how a business is run and pay attention from everything to its IT and administrative improvements, customer insights and going as far as changing our mindset about the business models by making our primary focus the customer. By focusing on customers and their journeys, it is possible to have a mutually beneficial relationship. This can see an increase of up to 30% in customer satisfaction, a 20% in employee satisfaction and profits ranging from 20-50% of the capital (Ralph Breuer, McKinsey). When looking for ways to improve, it can often seem like fixing the biggest problem in front of you can fix the major issues. It is often not the case. According to Harald Fanderl, it is necessary to take a holistic approach when considering how to truly change the consumers’ experience with a company.
By using proven techniques that can transform your business, you are signing yourself up for success. While doing this, it is important to maintain cross-organizational communication and not always stick to hierarchy. It is necessary for a business to have various points of contact within the organization to make sure the exact needs of the consumer are met. While enacting on the strategies, it is also important to create a focus on continuous improvements instead of just focusing on finishing the project. This will ensure that every consumer that comes to you can be assured that their needs will be met. It is important for a customer to know that the business is available to sort out issues even after the project is complete. The experience of the customer after the completion of the project is equally important as their experience during it. The act of being open to criticism and help even after they’re gone helps in building goodwill among the clients in the industry.

While Harald Fanderl thinks a holistic approach is a true measure for success, Nicolas Maechler explains that the first step is to have a top-notch strategy and a common objective. The next step should be to digitize customer journeys and have a way of getting continuous feedback from the consumers to the employees. Furthermore, Fransje van der Marel, a partner at McKinsey, adds that creating a digital transformation based on customer experience is a great way to ensure happy customers and solves majority of inefficiencies. Constantly being in touch with your customer from the beginning to the end of the project is critical along with looking for ways to get access to the organization’s experiences and expertise. Additionally, focusing on quality and value-filled delivery with an excited team is a necessary key to ensure happy customers.

Tjark Freundt also insists that to have an effective customer strategy, it is necessary to have a clear vision and an ambitious expression of goals. It is important to have clear metrics as they are crucial to understand customer needs and performance levels but also to take an overall view of the end-to-end customer experience. The first step to define customer-experience aspiration is to not make it generic or one that doesn’t align with the company’s motto and not knowing how to measure it. Not being prepared in these things can lead to a company having a CX-transformation programs that doesn’t have clarity. This is then translated by defining specific values to expect changes in customer behaviour. Once experiences are prioritised, it is simple to identify the technology needed to help achieve this.

Successful customer experience initiatives look and feel different for different companies. These companies create versatile and cross functional teams with deep technical and design experience with continual perfection. These teams also have the talent to seamlessly transition into various scenarios without much difficulty and drive continuous cross-functional innovation. Successful companies also often reflect on their investments in recruitment and teams that have proficiency in experience design, building cutting-edge cross-channel platforms and technology along with recreating products that deliver what the brand promises.

In conclusion, the four necessary parts to any successful CX strategy is are having a customer-centric mindset, a versatile operating and governance structure, integrated technology and a machine learning based performance analysis system. Any company that has all these resources and can use them well will be able to build and execute a CX transformation. Having an advantage in customer experience is expected of companies in the current era. Only by committing to having a sustainable customer experience can a company have an edge over its competitors.