Measuring customer experience yet to be mastered

As a CEO passionate about customer experience I noted with interest the recent report from Bruce Temkin Customer Experience Accelerates in 2011. It's worth a read. Based on a survey of executives, it suggests that customer experience is going to become more important in 2011. I have heard that reported almost every year for longer than I care to remember.
That's not cynicism on my part but a reflection of how difficult it is get an organisation to truly focus on its customers. One of my favourite maxims is "Every organisation is perfectly designed to achieve the results it does." 

The chart below from the Temkin report suggests that few companies have mastered this.

So where to start? Well the headings in the chart above are as good as anywhere but top of the list must be leadership. If you are a CEO or manager, look around your team and ask yourself which of my colleagues are really customer focused.

And you should start by looking in the mirror. Leadership sets the tone of the organisation. One of my old bosses used to say 'An organisation is either customer focused from top to bottom, or its not customer focused at all.' I would add that I have never seen a company that is customer focused at the bottom but not at the top.

Passion and belief are good starting points but are useless without knowing what the customer thinks. A good voice of the customer programme is essential to direct that passion to tackle the things that matter most to the customer: those elements of the experience that make a difference to buying intent and advocacy. As the chart shows, many companies have much to do in this field. It's why we started Clicktools and why we are confident about our future.

You can purchase a copy of the full report from Temkin Group.