my customer experience philosophy
You know how dominos can be stood on end and placed in a line? And the front domino – if you place it just right – will tip all the rest? Using customer experience to drive performance is what makes me think of one of those lines of falling dominos.
At the end of your line of dominos, the outcome of success or failure, is profit. (If you’re a social sector organization you might measure sustainable social outcomes, but you get the idea.) At the front of the line is the purpose domino, the action that drives all the others to fall into place. In the middle I see all of the actions and decisions that must align with the purpose in order to tip the back domino to win a performance payoff.
Imagine that you have been wise in choosing your target customer and the problem you can solve for them. Then imagine your perfect vision of what happens and how your target customer feels as they learn about your organization for the first time, try you out, buy, use your product or service to solve their problem, and then evolve to another need over time. This ideal vision is your target customer experience.
I see a link between solving a problem well for the right target customer and financial performance. To put this to work, you can match a problem your organization can solve well with a big market of customers who would truly value having the solution. That will drive revenue and margin. It will attract great employees who can anticipate more problems to solve well. Solving lots of problems well at good margins creates the ability to give something back to the communities where you do business. Customers advocate for your brand. And you’ll have that final domino – plenty of profit.
I see a target customer experience as a perfectly placed front domino, and financial performance as the reward. What do you see?