Building Customer Experience Capabilities in Manufacturing

How manufacturers can use Qualtrics XM Institute’s CX Maturity Model to build a winning B2B customer experience program.

The XM Institute CX Maturity Model

Building a customer experience (CX) program that delivers real value is a challenge for many organizations. The challenges compound in B2B structures where rational factors such as quality and reliability are a hyper focus.

The good news is that companies have access to a well-researched and tested CX operational framework thanks to the Qualtrics XM Institute, a thriving global community of experience management (XM) professionals.

Through the XM Maturity Model, organizations get both a framework and an assessment to move from unstructured and unorganized customer experience competencies and capabilities to standardized, repeatable CX processes that are managed, monitored, and embedded throughout the organization.

The optimized result is leadership with CX metrics incorporated into their organizational dashboards for more robust operational decision-making that connects to financial impacts.

Marvin’s CX Maturity Experience

But how does a B2B organization begin to develop an intentional CX program that drives organizational impacts? In the video below, Jim Tincher of Heart of the Customer and Haemi Chang from Marvin Windows and Doors relay their work as they reimagined, transitioned, and matured Marvin’s CX capabilities and strategies.

Marvin’s Steps to CX Maturity

1) Identify Organizational Challenges

Jim and Haemi identified two main barriers that Marvin’s CX programs faced within their manufacturing structure:

• A history of isolated CX initiatives without centralized governance or tracking due to the lack of a holistic CX plan
• Internal skepticism that CX was not an enterprise strategy due to CX metrics historically being disconnected from business outcomes

From this information, Haemi and her team decided to place a heavy emphasis on stakeholder engagement early in the process.

2) Conduct a CX Maturity Assessment

Heart of the Customer interviewed over 30 Marvin stakeholders (leaders, peers, and teams) to assess the 6 key CX competencies (see more below) and 20 core skill sets. This comprehensive evaluation gave Mavin’s CX leaders the foundation to identify areas for growth and create a common language around customer experience.

Haemi noted, “It was a great alignment tool and facilitation method to get everyone on the same page.”

3) Connect CX Initiatives to Business Outcomes

CX often gets siloed within organizations because CX leaders struggle with proving the impact of their work on the bottom line. Marvin tackled this challenge head-on by tying their CX to operations and financial data.

For Marvin, “realize value” was a competency weak spot. In response, Haemi and her team built a business case by defining key performance indicators (KPIs) that connected CX efforts to financial results.

4) Communicate

The interview insights showed how different stakeholder groups viewed CX. This gave Haemi an opportunity to craft specific messages for each group to continue to foster CX buy-in and ownership.

With operational leaders, Haemi focused on data and metrics to make the case for CX. With customer-facing teams, Haemi leaned on empathy and customer stories to build emotional connections.

So what does great CX programming look like? Let’s dive more into the XM Institutes CX Maturity Model components.

Core Impact Areas of CX

CX doesn’t stop at implementing surveys or delivering NPS scores, as these things don’t connect or impact business processes or workflows. They can leave leadership saying, “So now what?”

Instead, great CX links CX and operational data to discover ways to improve and differentiate within the four core experiences of business:

• Customer
• Employee
• Product
• Brand

With CX data at the high-level decision-making table alongside other KPIs, businesses gain a competitive advantage as they use their own customer data to create intentional experiences that drive the specific customer behaviors needed to support lager enterprise goals.

The 3 Elements of CX

Great CX programs focus and assess on maturing 3 core elements

• Technology – The CX tech stack empowers an organization to collect, understand, and take action on insights and data.
• Competencies – The talent, skills, and actions that make up the CX function and staffing model.
• Culture – The mindsets and beliefs that nurture CX-centric behaviors across the organization (not just within CX or marketing).

The 6 Core Competencies of CX

For any CX program to function, 6 core competencies must be present and equal in strength and function.

• Align – This competency is about architecting, aligning, and sustaining the strategy and workflows associated with a program roadmap and governance.
• Realize – This competency is about identifying and tracking the right metrics associated with CX measurement and monitoring.
• Activate – This competency is aboutis about ensuring that the organization has the appropriate skills, support, and motivation associated with the culture, communications, and capabilities of CX.
• Enlighten – This competency is aboutcapturing, analyzing, and distributing actionable insights associated with voice of the customer feedback
• Respond – This competency is about building organizational mechanisms to continuously take actions associated with responding and improving decision-making and processes.
• Disrupt – This competency is about identifying and creating experiences associated with the organization’s differentiation and competitiveness.

Marvin’s journey to develop its CX program provides a powerful example of how a customer experience maturity model can help organizations build a customer-centric culture. By using data, engaging stakeholders, and connecting CX efforts to business results, Marvin laid the groundwork for lasting transformation.

For more about this topic, watch the video below or reach out and contact us.