Building a Customer Experience Value Framework

Improving the customer experience has become such a top priority for organizations that it has turned into a cliche. Content, research, and posts on why it’s important flood our LinkedIn feeds so much it can make you disengage. Organizations have been so overrun with this content, it has become background noise, and in turn, deprioritizes specific activities that can garner data and information to ultimately impact the bottom line. The immediate challenge for organizations is making the decision on where and how to get started.

This is where the queue into Lev happens. The curtain rises, and the answer is revealed. That’s what we try to do with every conversation we have with our new and existing clients -- no matter the size, industry, and market. Below are the stages of a framework that helps show the value organizations can achieve by assessing all aspects of their marketing, technology, and processes. 
 

Becoming the Customer

When we start to have discussions with our clients about the pain points and goals they are trying to achieve, we also become their customers. Seriously. We immerse ourselves into their market and customer pool to garner information and even products and services. We dive deep into websites, apps, social media, customer service and buying cycles. We even look for opportunities for our clients to advertise with us. You may be asking, “Why? Why do you do this? Why would anyone OPENLY opt into being followed around the web?” We do, because we are marketers too. We love to see what clients are doing and how they interact and communicate with their customers. This helps us understand where they are and set a baseline for their interactions. 
 

Examining Your Strategy

Everything that happens to the customer, happens for a reason. There is a specific strategy our clients are looking to execute in order to achieve specific goals. Whether it is increased sales/revenue, lead generation, average-order-value (AOV) or customer retention, we deep dive into those goals and KPIs. This in turn helps set the stage for how we can: 1) identify gaps, 2) innovate and optimize and, 3) deploy value added campaigns or initiatives.
 

Leveraging Data + Technology

Let’s face it, understanding customer data is hard and there’s no shame in admitting that. Whether they are large enterprises or smaller commercial organizations, understanding where data lives and moves, and the technologies that it interacts with can be a web of information that seems to have no end. However, for us, this is where the fun begins. Looking across the entire organization (customer service, sales, marketing, IT, etc.) to understand the data architecture and how different technologies are being used is one of the most important and exciting parts. This exercise helps prospective and current clients understand what they are looking for in terms of customer information is usually closer than they think -- it is a matter of harnessing it in order to make it actionable and, more importantly, scaleable with the capabilities of the technology available. 
 

All customer experience initiatives require deep involvement from clients and partners to understand what matters to customers, the elements of customer experience, goals that should be set, and the priorities to meet those goals. Unfortunately, not having the insight to make a change for further value to the customer experience is where many organizations fall short. Organizations coming to Lev and thinking about engaging in a customer experience exercise are quickly able to see the value we bring and how it can help define change within the customer experience.