SPEAKER_1: Welcome to Decoding the Customer, a podcast about customer experience and how to realize customer-centric change in today's dynamic business world.
SPEAKER_1: I'm Julia Ahlfeldt, certified customer experience professional, business advisor, and host of this program.
SPEAKER_1: Thanks so much for tuning in.
SPEAKER_1: If you're new to the show, welcome.
SPEAKER_1: If you're a returning listener, thanks, and it's great to have you back.
SPEAKER_1: This episode is part of my CX Mini Masterclass series here on Decoding the Customer.
SPEAKER_1: These weekly episodes are published each Thursday and designed to be punchy, bite-size overviews of key customer experience concepts and ideas for how you can help your organization thrive through customer centricity.
SPEAKER_1: Whether you're new to the field of customer experience, are preparing for the CCXP exam, or are a seasoned professional looking to brush up on a few basics, this series will help you improve your knowledge, skills, and performance to stand out as a CX professional.
SPEAKER_1: And, an added note to those who are already CCXPs, the Customer Experience Professionals Association is now recognizing CX Podcasts listening towards certification renewal credits.
SPEAKER_1: So, be sure to jot down which episodes you've listened to so that you can submit this towards your continued education requirements.
SPEAKER_1: This is episode 89, the third episode of June 2020.
SPEAKER_1: And my last CX Mini Masterclass episode, before I take a little hiatus to go on maternity leave.
SPEAKER_1: Yes, my wonderful listeners, big changes are afoot, but I will be back.
SPEAKER_1: I have a very special interview episode with one of my CX heroes next week, so I'm very excited about that.
SPEAKER_1: After that episode, I'll be taking a couple of months off from my weekly schedule of new episodes, but we'll try to periodically repost a few past favorites from the archive and potentially some fresh content from a few of the show's guest expert contributors before I'm back in the saddle later this year.
SPEAKER_1: I wanted to take us into this hiatus on a high note, so I've been saving one of my favorite topics for this episode.
SPEAKER_1: Today, I'm going to share a simple, humble tool that I've found to be incredibly effective for driving customer-centric change, and that's the Customer Impact Scorecard.
SPEAKER_1: At the time of recording this episode, the world is grappling with a global health crisis.
SPEAKER_1: Business operations are changing in real time, and there has never been a more important moment to keep tabs on how business decisions impact customer experience.
SPEAKER_1: So I'm going to share a simple tool that will help any team in your organization evaluate how changes to people, processes, or technology might impact customer experience.
SPEAKER_1: If you are looking for a practical approach to help cross-functional teams stay the course towards shared customer experience goals, then stay tuned.
SPEAKER_1: As always, if you're out and about while listening to this, and hear something that you'd like to remember later, don't worry about writing it down.
SPEAKER_1: You can find an overview of the key concepts we've covered today in the show notes for this episode, which are on my website juliaahlfeldt.com or decodingthecustomer.com.
SPEAKER_1: I've seen this happen many times over.
SPEAKER_1: Someone in IT, sales or operations makes a decision about a new product or a process with the best intentions, but the result has a negative impact on customer experience.
SPEAKER_1: Maybe it was a change to a policy that resulted in extra steps on the part of the customer, or a new platform that made it more difficult for teams to provide service support.
SPEAKER_1: Whatever the example, these things happen, and I find it's rarely out of malice.
SPEAKER_1: After all, no one, or at least I hope no one, goes around intentionally making customer experiences worse.
SPEAKER_1: More often than not, the issue is that the team that implemented the change just wasn't thinking about the downstream impact on customer experience.
SPEAKER_1: Because let's be honest, the customer may be the guiding light for CX teams and some executives, but historically, that hasn't been true for all teams.
SPEAKER_1: Also, the more removed an employee or a department is from the customer, the more difficult it can be to draw the connection between someone's day-to-day responsibilities and customer outcomes.
SPEAKER_1: In this scenario, a little assistance and structure are in order, and this is where the Customer Impact Scorecard can be your best friend.
SPEAKER_1: A Customer Impact Scorecard is a rating or evaluation tool that prompts the user to assess something, be that a change to people, processes, or technology, that will eventually turn into customer outcomes, and if these outcomes are desirable, neutral, or adverse.
SPEAKER_1: The idea being that a scorecard becomes a quick and easy check and balance that helps prevent decisions which might inadvertently damage customer experience, or at least it pushes the stakeholders making these decisions to have an honest assessment of the impact on customer experience by moving the thinking from inside out to outside in.
SPEAKER_1: I've seen many organizations implement risk assessment scorecards for major business changes or investment spending, so why can't the same assessment steps be done with customer experience in mind?
SPEAKER_1: Surely, customer experience is just as important to the long-term viability of any business.
SPEAKER_1: And if you'd like to know a little bit more about how to help your organization balance business risk and customer experience, then be sure to check out episode 36.
SPEAKER_1: To get started building a customer impact scorecard, identify which attributes you'd like to score.
SPEAKER_1: Think about your customer promise, your principles, and what's important to your customer.
SPEAKER_1: Turn these into thought starter questions that can be rated as positive, negative, or neutral impact.
SPEAKER_1: Let's say, for example, that respecting customers' time is one of your customer experience principles.
SPEAKER_1: Then you might want to add, as one of your scorecard attributes, will this business change impact our ability to service customers in a timely manner and live up to our promise?
SPEAKER_1: Let's say that ease of use is also something you know that is important to customers.
SPEAKER_1: Then you might want to add the question, will this change impact how easy it is for customers to do business with us?
SPEAKER_1: I'd suggest building a scorecard with somewhere between five and 10 customer impact attributes aligned to your organization's customer experience goals, customer promise, or principles.
SPEAKER_1: And then a simple three or five point rating scale from positive to negative, with the positive impact being a positive number, neutral being zero, and a negative impact being negative score.
SPEAKER_1: After evaluating a business change, the scorecard should yield a score that sheds light on the impact to customer experience.
SPEAKER_1: A high score would mean that an initiative is expected to have an overwhelmingly positive impact on customer experience.
SPEAKER_1: And perhaps this positive result can be baked into the business case or prioritization.
SPEAKER_1: A score close to zero would indicate a neutral impact, so customer experience wouldn't be a primary decision driver.
SPEAKER_1: And a negative score would indicate a business change with a potentially adverse impact on customer experience.
SPEAKER_1: If the score is negative, it should ring alarm bells and warrant closer evaluation.
SPEAKER_1: Perhaps there's an opportunity to adjust plans and mitigate this negative impact or at least consider the long-term effect on customer lifetime value versus the proposed benefit of the business change.
SPEAKER_1: If your leadership team loves scores, ratings, and structure, then this tool can add some real quantifiable muscle to the case for making decisions with the customer in mind, which is an important step to building customer centricity into your business.
SPEAKER_1: In terms of rolling out the scorecard tool, I suggest reaching out to your organization's project management team or whoever the gatekeepers are for business change.
SPEAKER_1: Ask them what their process is for vetting new initiatives and if customer impact can be included in that process.
SPEAKER_1: I think the key is to keep the scorecard stuff very straightforward and easy.
SPEAKER_1: You want to help guide cross-functional leaders to consider the customer before making a business decision, but you also want to avoid creating complex red tape that people end up presenting.
SPEAKER_1: If you're looking for help ensuring that your organization makes business decisions that work towards best-in-class customer experience, not against it, then please get in touch.
SPEAKER_1: I'd be happy to explore how I can help.
SPEAKER_1: You can reach me via email, tweet, or LinkedIn message.
SPEAKER_1: My handle is at Julia Ahlfeldt, and my full contact details are also listed on my website, juliaahlfeldt.com or decodingthecustomer.com.
SPEAKER_1: I hope that you're enjoying the show.
SPEAKER_1: Please share with others who might be interested or head on over to iTunes and rate the podcast.
SPEAKER_1: This helps others find the show.
SPEAKER_1: I'll be back next week with a very special interview episode.
SPEAKER_1: I'll see you then.