Customer experience (CX) is about more than surveys.
CX is about understanding customers through operational and financial metrics, reaching into each individual’s journey, and making a difference.
So now might be a good time to ask for a raise, because you’re going to be doing a lot more!
Leaders in the CX space are spending money consolidating disconnected CX technologies into enterprise experience platforms. Your job as a CX leader is to lean in and take advantage of the upward momentum, and spread the reach of what CX is all about in your company.
Qualtrics has been saying for the last several years that they are an experience platform and not a survey platform. They just invested in that in a significant way with the purchase of Usermind, a leading journey orchestration platform. This sends a message that anyone serious about CX needs to go beyond surveys and start meeting customers where they are in their journey…and help them succeed.
Two years ago, Heart of the Customer added journey analytics and orchestration services to our portfolio of offerings. Last year, we conducted more than 150 hours of interviews with CX leaders that reinforced the wisdom of that addition, as the most successful leaders told us how their CX Tech Stack was helping them achieve breakthrough results.
Their tech stacks included journey mapping software, VoC platforms, customer health dashboards, journey analytics, and journey orchestration. Along with customer communications management software, these are the core of what we see raising the profile of the CX team.
In March, we predicted CX programs had about a year before it would become urgent for them to move up the CX value chain to invest in the breadth of the CX tech stack. Qualtrics’ purchase, coupled with purchase of Kitewheel by CSG, has made it imperative that you take action even sooner.
It is unthinkable that a company serious about their customers would not have a VoC system where they hear from their customers and close the loop. In two years, Qualtrics and CSG, and probably Medallia, Quadient, and Adobe will be selling a version of the full CX Tech Stack.
Adoption is taking off, and CX programs have the opportunity to expand their influence by learning more and raising their ship with the tide of analytics, orchestration, and communication management that is coming.
Jim Tincher and I have had the opportunity to talk to the leaders in these companies. We have heard firsthand that they are deploying some extraordinary use cases over the next 18 months. We are looking to help where we can. I leave you with two questions:
You had better be prepared to answer those questions, because you will be asked.