<div class="gn-article"><div class="gn-hero gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-hero__image"><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/687a235da6861294eec73166/68fa11cf746ba840829cad53_651d3d3343db221870f11729_6284c2f26d9a8c25b67563c3_Content%252520and%252520Event%252520Headers%252520(5)%252520(1)%252520(1).png" alt=""></div> <div class="gn-hero__head"> <span class="gn-kicker"><span class="dot"></span>Intelligence</span> <h1 class="gn-title">Boosting your Strategy with Customer Communication, UX, and Research</h1> <div class="gn-meta"> <strong>The GO Network</strong> <span class="pip"></span> <span>6 July 2022</span> <span class="pip"></span> <span>9 min read</span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="gn-body"> <p class="gn-lede gn-reveal">What turns customers into advocates for your business? This, we sat down with <strong>communication, UX and research</strong> experts from across our network to learn how to build a manageable cross-business strategy that turns your customers into authentic ambassadors for your brand.</p> <p class="gn-reveal"><strong><em>This article is comprised of key learnings from our virtual workshop for cross-business customer leaders, 'The A-Z of Customer Excellence.' Join an upcoming session </em></strong><a href="http://www.thegonetwork.com/events"><strong><em>here</em></strong></a><strong><em>.</em></strong></p> <h2 class="gn-reveal"><span class="num">01</span>Getting Started: Framing your Customer Strategy</h2> <p class="gn-reveal">Customer and user experience is a broad part of a business, branching into many different specialisms and areas such as brand voice, personalisation, referrals &amp; rewards and so on.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">So, how do you know if your existing customer strategy is up to scratch?</p> <h3 class="gn-reveal">Getting Started: How The Customer Experience is Changing</h3> <p class="gn-reveal">With the pandemic changing how many of us interacted with brands, we began by asking our panel about the key trends and challenges that are impacting how customers perceive a brand.</p> <p class="gn-reveal"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-cooper-31443233/"><strong>Mike Cooper</strong>,</a> Head of Customer Experience at <a href="https://www.trinitymcqueen.com/"><strong>Trinity McQueen</strong></a> explains that over the past two or three years, <strong>customer expectations have gone through the roof</strong>.</p> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"New competitors and brands are now operating in established markets and have ripped up the rulebook. They have driven expectations higher than ever before. <strong>People have a baseline of what their expectation should be, and the pandemic has dialled this up</strong>. People were forced into new ways of interacting with brands online and have continued to use online services where before they would not have done."<cite>Mike Cooper · Head of Customer Experience, Trinity McQueen</cite></blockquote> <figure class="gn-fig gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-fig__media"><img alt="Mike Cooper of Trinity McQueen discusses planning and implementing a customer experience strategy" src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6877701b88030d58f11ac053/6a16dd0397a42b0a2014bd4c_trinity-20mcqueen-article-20quote.webp" width="auto" height="auto" loading="auto"></div> <figcaption>Mike Cooper, Head of Customer Experience at Trinity McQueen, on rising customer expectations.</figcaption> </figure> <h3 class="gn-reveal">A Growing Customer Experience Gap</h3> <p class="gn-reveal">After surveying 362 firms, <a href="https://media.bain.com/bainweb/PDFs/cms/hotTopics/closingdeliverygap.pdf">one statistic from Bain &amp; Company</a> shows that 80% of companies believed they delivered "superior experience" for their customers. The customers themselves, however, had a completely different perception, with only 8% saying that companies were delivering to their expectations.</p> <div class="gn-stats gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-stat"><span class="gn-stat__num">80<em>%</em></span><span class="gn-stat__label">of companies believed they delivered "superior experience" for their customers.</span></div> <div class="gn-stat"><span class="gn-stat__num">8<em>%</em></span><span class="gn-stat__label">of customers said companies were delivering to their expectations.</span></div> </div> <p class="gn-reveal">"<strong>Experience gaps pop up everywhere</strong>," Mike continues. "This is also the case for what customers expect verses their actual experience. <strong>If you can identify the gaps and know how to fill them in, you can drive a stronger outcome</strong>."</p> <h3 class="gn-reveal">Getting Started: Framing your Digital Customer Experience and UX</h3> <p class="gn-reveal">We asked <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/armintalic/"><strong>Armin Talic</strong></a>, Commercial Director at <a href="https://www.komododigital.co.uk/"><strong>KOMODO</strong></a>, how he would go about evaluating the existing Customer Experience (CX) performance of a business.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">The first port of call? <strong>Make sure you actually understand what your customers are dealing with.</strong></p> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"Firstly, <strong>all senior decision makers should review their product catalogue end-to-end</strong>. Most haven't done this since their onboarding. From this, they'll get a good sense of what is working well."<cite>Armin Talic · Commercial Director, KOMODO</cite></blockquote> <p class="gn-reveal">The next layer is figuring out how to choose the right questions to ask consumers. You need to understand the type of info you need, and to do this, you need to understand the business. When you have the questions, there are <a href="https://www.parlor.io/blog/customer-experience-metrics/">several ways you can go about getting the feedback</a>. <strong>Incentives and competitions aren't a great way to get subjective feedback</strong>, because this feedback tends to be more positive."</p> <p class="gn-reveal"><em>Read more: </em><a href="https://www.thegonetwork.com/news/getting-ahead-how-to-use-market-analysis-to-outdo-your-competitors"><em>Creating an Effective Market Analysis Strategy</em></a></p> <h3 class="gn-reveal">Getting Started: Framing your Customer Communication and Voice</h3> <p class="gn-reveal">One of the key factors that make or break a customer experience is how you communicate with them.</p> <p class="gn-reveal"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-taylor-26184a/"><strong>Neil Taylor</strong></a>, Founder of <a href="https://schwa.consulting/"><strong>Schwa*</strong></a>, a specialist tone-of-voice agency, shared the best time to prioritise something like tone of voice for a business.</p> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"As early as possible. <strong>Part of tone-of-voice is deciding how you want to come across</strong>. That bit needs to happen early, and will help you decide on metrics."<cite>Neil Taylor · Founder, Schwa*</cite></blockquote> <p class="gn-reveal"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardtrigg/"><strong>Richard Trigg</strong></a>, Product Experience Partner at <a href="https://www.tangent.co.uk/"><strong>Tangent</strong></a> backs up the importance of a human voice and good communication as part of your customer experience.</p> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"Sometimes, <strong>you need to be human in the way you come across</strong>. For companies looking to improve, it's acknowledging that we're not quite there yet, but we're trying. <strong>Design and copy go hand in hand</strong>. Get them working together, and you'll be good."<cite>Richard Trigg · Product Experience Partner, Tangent</cite></blockquote> <aside class="gn-callout gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-callout__label">What this means for you</div> <h4>Key learnings for framing your Customer Experience Strategy</h4> <ul> <li><strong>Remember the competitive landscape.</strong> The customer landscape is more competitive than ever.</li> <li><strong>Overcome the experience gap.</strong> Combine real customer feedback with internal perceptions of your CX to overcome the experience gap.</li> <li><strong>Review the full journey first.</strong> Review your customer journey from start to finish before you try to make changes.</li> <li><strong>Ask the right questions.</strong> Use the right questions to assess your current CX strategy.</li> </ul> </aside> <div class="gn-divider gn-reveal" aria-hidden="true"></div> <h2 class="gn-reveal"><span class="num">02</span>Building your CX Strategy: Mapping your Resource and Getting Buy-In</h2> <p class="gn-reveal"><strong>Resource is a key factor when planning any strategy.</strong> You need to assess your capabilities and build on what you already have. You might discover that you simply don't have the capacity to achieve the results you are looking for (which is a good time to <a href="http://www.thegonetwork.com/get-in-touch">engage in external support</a>.)</p> <p class="gn-reveal">One of the problems in knowing where to prioritise resource, is that there are often hundreds of different touch-points across a business. How do you know which of these to work on when resource is limited?</p> <h3 class="gn-reveal">Building your CX Strategy: How to prioritise resource for limited capacity</h3> <p class="gn-reveal">Mike says that you need to <strong>get an understanding of what customers are trying to achieve from each interaction</strong>. "You can then start to map back and see which part of the journey are helping or hindering them. Among all the touch-points, some will make no impact on the overall experience.</p> <p class="gn-reveal"><strong>To prioritise resource, you need to understand which are the big blockers</strong>; the ones that will lead customers to reassess their choice. You can do this in a number of ways, including:</p> <p class="gn-reveal"><strong>Touchpoint surveys</strong> - but bear in mind that people are not always great at reflecting on their own behaviour.</p> <p class="gn-reveal"><strong>Observation</strong> - using digital tracking tools to follow people on their natural journey.</p> <h3 class="gn-reveal">Building your CX Strategy: Gaining cross-business buy-in</h3> <p class="gn-reveal">One of the common themes when talking about a broader strategy like customer experience are the silos between different departments of the business. <strong>It can often seem like too big of a problem to resolve.</strong></p> <p class="gn-reveal">Neil starts by saying that <strong>businesses usually have an intuitive sense of what's going wrong</strong>, and how they would like to change things.</p> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"The difficult question is, 'who owns it?' <strong>Customer experience is often no-one's job</strong>. You first need to see how you can get a group of people moving in the same direction, and this often requires support from the top to make it happen."<cite>Neil Taylor · Founder, Schwa*</cite></blockquote> <figure class="gn-fig gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-fig__media"><img alt="Neil Taylor of Schwa* discusses planning and implementing a customer experience strategy" src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6877701b88030d58f11ac053/6a16dd0340c2081af0f7156a_schwa-article-20quote.webp" width="auto" height="auto" loading="auto"></div> <figcaption>Neil Taylor, Founder of Schwa*, on gaining cross-business buy-in for CX strategy.</figcaption> </figure> <aside class="gn-quote gn-reveal"><q>Organisations that have the most success are ones that have buy-in at a senior level. They need to make sure that all parts of the business are talking to each other.</q><cite>Mike Cooper · Head of Customer Experience, Trinity McQueen</cite></aside> <p class="gn-reveal">Armin says that, in smaller businesses especially, people will say that they've got bigger problems on their hands and that they've got too many day-to-day tasks to address the problem.</p> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"When something is complex, people shy away from it. <strong>Recognise that it's going to take time and effort</strong>. When we speak to teams, <strong>we ask 'how long do you think you have to solve the problem</strong>.' We see the most success when teams that are traditionally seen as siloed work well together."<cite>Armin Talic · Commercial Director, KOMODO</cite></blockquote> <aside class="gn-callout gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-callout__label">What this means for you</div> <h4>Key learnings for building your CX strategy</h4> <ul> <li><strong>Work through the journey first.</strong> Work through your customer journey step by step before assigning resource to any one area.</li> <li><strong>Find the big blockers.</strong> Use touchpoint surveys and observations to understand your 'big blockers'.</li> <li><strong>Engage leadership early.</strong> For larger initiatives that work across siloes, engage senior leadership as soon as possible.</li> </ul> </aside> <div class="gn-divider gn-reveal" aria-hidden="true"></div> <h2 class="gn-reveal"><span class="num">03</span>Implementation: Running an Effective CX Initiative</h2> <p class="gn-reveal">You know the pain points, you know where to start, and you've got buy-in from the senior leadership team - now the work begins.</p> <h3 class="gn-reveal">Implementation: Maintaining accountability with key team members</h3> <p class="gn-reveal">The scope of a CX project can mean maintaining stakeholder engagement and accountability is one of the biggest challenges.</p> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"From a product perspective, because there are many people involved, it's about getting everyone excited in what you're doing. <strong>Allow people to have their feedback, and keep them informed about the journey that you're going on</strong>."<cite>Richard Trigg · Product Experience Partner, Tangent</cite></blockquote> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"<strong>It's important to educate your team about who is responsible for the work</strong>, who's accountable for the design and who needs consulting and informed. This generally stops disagreements."<cite>Armin Talic · Commercial Director, KOMODO</cite></blockquote> <h3 class="gn-reveal">Implementation: Getting feedback on Digital CX efforts</h3> <p class="gn-reveal"><strong>When implementing a new strategy, it's important to get as much feedback on it as possible</strong>. It will allow you to know what's working, and where there might be potential gaps.</p> <p class="gn-reveal">Richard explained that traditional usability testing changed a lot over the pandemic.</p> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"You also need to consider whether you are looking to continuously track performance, or just need a little hit of feedback. <strong>What is your 'North Star' metric</strong>, something that you are always trying to do."<cite>Richard Trigg · Product Experience Partner, Tangent</cite></blockquote> <p class="gn-reveal">"<strong>There are now a lot of good, unmoderated platforms</strong> where you can put out a question and get responses back within the day. You can also use things like AI eye-tracking tools to see where people are drawn to on your website, which is interesting from a design perspective."</p> <p class="gn-reveal">Some examples of tracking tools to help are:</p> <p class="gn-reveal"><a href="https://usabilityhub.com/">Usability Hub</a></p> <p class="gn-reveal"><a href="https://www.userlytics.com/">Userlytics</a> and <a href="https://www.userfeel.com/">Userfeel</a></p> <p class="gn-reveal"><a href="https://www.optimalworkshop.com/">Optimal Workshop</a></p> <figure class="gn-fig gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-fig__media"><img alt="Richard Trigg of Tangent discusses planning and implementing a customer experience strategy" src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6877701b88030d58f11ac053/6a16dd046b5b2e643ae9dc60_tangent-article-20quote.webp" width="auto" height="auto" loading="auto"></div> <figcaption>Richard Trigg, Product Experience Partner at Tangent, on getting feedback on digital CX efforts.</figcaption> </figure> <h3 class="gn-reveal">Implementation: When to review your Customer Experience Strategy</h3> <p class="gn-reveal">Having the tools to be able to track your efforts is one thing, how often you are doing this is another. So, how often should you be coming back to the drawing board to review your customer strategy?</p> <p class="gn-reveal">Richard gives what he describes as the 'lame' answer: <strong>always.</strong></p> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"You can't just go in and say 'let's look at our customer experience today.' <strong>You need to find a way to bake it in so it can happen naturally</strong>. Customer experiences is a massive challenge, so don't beat yourself up about things. Don't expect everything to change in six months."<cite>Richard Trigg · Product Experience Partner, Tangent</cite></blockquote> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"In terms of frequency, if you have a strong culture in the business along with the people and mechanisms, <strong>keep tracking as frequent as possible</strong>. If you don't have this in place, you might not hear about the 'bad' things. You've got to make sure the process isn't biased."<cite>Mike Cooper · Head of Customer Experience, Trinity McQueen</cite></blockquote> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"<strong>CX is not a single project. It must be a continuous part of your business</strong>. Think about how everything you do impacts the customer."<cite>Armin Talic · Commercial Director, KOMODO</cite></blockquote> <figure class="gn-fig gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-fig__media"><img alt="Armin Talic of KOMODO discusses planning and implementing a customer experience strategy" src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6877701b88030d58f11ac053/6a16dd04876a28ae67b5854e_komodo-article-20quote.webp" width="auto" height="auto" loading="auto"></div> <figcaption>Armin Talic, Commercial Director at KOMODO, on treating CX as a continuous business priority.</figcaption> </figure> <aside class="gn-callout gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-callout__label">What this means for you</div> <h4>Key learnings for running an effective Customer Experience strategy</h4> <ul> <li><strong>Engage your team.</strong> Get your team excited in the project by engaging them for feedback.</li> <li><strong>Clarify responsibilities.</strong> With larger projects, ensure clarity on who is responsible for what.</li> <li><strong>Use objective tools.</strong> For UX projects, objective tools can provide feedback on your performance.</li> <li><strong>Bake it in.</strong> Where possible, bake Customer Experience metrics into your everyday business processes, rather than running one-off projects.</li> </ul> </aside> <h3 class="gn-reveal">Remember: Customer Excellence isn't one-size-fits-all</h3> <p class="gn-reveal">Finally, it's important to remember that not everyone will have, or indeed will want, the same experience as someone else.</p> <blockquote class="gn-blockquote gn-reveal">"Look at your strategy through different groups of customers. One of the learnings from looking at developing an experience strategy is that <strong>people don't want the same experience</strong>. As such, <strong>you shouldn't have a 'one-size-fits-all' strategy.</strong>"<cite>Mike Cooper · Head of Customer Experience, Trinity McQueen</cite></blockquote> <p class="gn-reveal"><em>These learnings were all shared in our dedicated virtual workshop series for business leaders, DRIVE. Join an upcoming session </em><a href="https://www.thegonetwork.com/events"><em>here</em></a><em>.</em></p> <p class="gn-reveal"><strong><em>If you're looking to update your customer communication strategy, refresh your UX, or find out more about your customer behaviour, the GO Network can help. Find out more about our cost-free agency search process </em></strong><a href="/for-brands"><strong><em>here</em></strong></a><strong><em>.</em></strong></p> </div></div> <aside class="gn-related gn-reveal" data-auto="related-reading"> <div class="gn-related__label">Related reading</div> <ul class="gn-related__list"> <li class="gn-related__item"> <a href="/articles/the-a-z-of-customer-excellence" class="gn-related__link"> <span class="gn-related__category">Expression</span> <span class="gn-related__title">The A-Z of Customer Excellence</span> <span class="gn-related__excerpt">Build a CX strategy that turns clients into advocates. 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