There are only FOUR ways to improve your customer experience. I refer to them as 3P's and a T - which stands for
- Products
- People
- Process
- Technology
Let me give you a pictorial example from my Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) work. The image to the right was taken in the MBUSA customer experience "war room" and depicts strategic targets across a multi-year timeline. The salmon-colored items at the top are PEOPLE-focused initiatives, the red items in the middle are PROCESS-focused, and the yellow projects are TECHNOLOGY initiatives. (Since Daimler is responsible for PRODUCT development, MBUSA placed pictures of vehicles that were in the product pipeline at the bottom of the strategy wall.) In addition to color-coding every customer experience (CX) project, leaders evaluated initiatives based on whether they create parity with competitors or produce differentiators for MBUSA. On the top right corner of various initiatives, red, green, and yellow dots signify those distinctions. So what can you learn from the Mercedes-Benz example? 1) Since you can't "microwave" customer experience excellence, commit to a long-term (multi-year) journey. 2) Target a combination of product, people, process, and technology initiatives. 3) Visually depict and track your multi-dimensional CX projects (e.g., in a CX war/strategy room). 4) Focus on initiatives that align your customer experience with your competition (that creates parity) and ones that differentiate your experience through signature moments. You can find more on how Mercedes-Benz leverages the 3P's and a T in my book. To learn more about our team, please visit josephmichelli.com. To speak to me about leveraging people, processes, and technology to drive customer loyalty, please go to josephmichelli.com/contact.
