Why has CX become the cornerstone of customer's growth, success, and loyalty? In an interview with Nate Brown, Chief Experience Officer at Officium Labs (Part 1)
Customers are now more educated, have more options, and can easily switch to another vendor if they are not satisfied with the service delivered. The question becomes: How should businesses design a different and unique customer experience (CX) in today’s new world?
In this interview, Nate Brown, Chief Experience Officer at Officium Labs, discusses why CX has become the cornerstone of a customer's growth, success, and loyalty.
Nate says CX has evolved beyond traditional surveys or feedback metrics. CX is the basis today for how reliable a business can be in delivering on brand promises — even more so, if they can stay true to their commitments.
How did your role in CX begin?
It was a progression of my career. I started in sales, selling postage meters on the streets of Florida. I quickly realized sales is not my cup of tea.
I joined PureSafety (acquired by UL) as a customer support specialist, and I fell in love with helping customers find more value or success with the product we support.
But I got stuck in the idea that we are simply solving the same problem over and over again. I want to know how we are impacting customers? How do we measure their loyalty? What is the basis of their satisfaction? How can we predict if they will renew their service, or they will churn?
As I became the Head of Customer Experience, there were two things I wanted to get an answer to. 1) What is the foundation on which we can measure customer success, churn, growth, or loyalty? 2) How can we leverage it as a competitive differentiator?
Customer experience is the answer I found. It bridges the gap between customer expectations and satisfaction. Its overarching goal is to align the overall business efforts and resources to eliminate guesswork, unnecessary friction, and ambiguity in the customer journey.
How is CX different from CS?
Customer success (CS) is the business outcome that we seek or aim for when customers use the product or service. But CX is the indicator of how well the customer can achieve it.
It guides businesses to ensure those customer transactions are harmonious, frictionless, and well-orchestrated from start to finish or top to bottom. It is impossible to provide successful business outcomes without a complete view of customer experience.
If we only seek the result of our business efforts, it will be a one-sided pursuit of success. Successful partnerships happen when both parties grow and thrive, not just one party. Therefore, the difference lies in everyone’s perspectives to enable them to do the right thing.
Why invest in CX?
The outcome we all look for at the end of the day is enhanced customer perception. Customer perception serves as a check and balance of how well businesses do business with their customers. Hence, it all starts and ends with CX.
Investing in CX means making sure the customer's sentiments, behaviors, desires, and aspirations are part of their journey. This inspires customer loyalty and pride in its employees because everyone knows how to move forward more productively and creatively.
The most beloved companies in the world today are rooted in CX, not in the technology they developed. They are known for how well they treat their customers. This is how they become part of their customers’ lives.
Thanks for speaking with me, Nate. Any final words?
Our goal as an organization is to help customers succeed by maximizing the full benefits of the purchased solution or product. But this would not be possible without enriching or improving their entire experience or journey.
The COVID-19 pandemic serves as the watershed moment for us to rethink the significance of CX as a competitive differentiator in today's challenging business landscape.
Please stay tuned for the second part of Nate’s interview, where we will continue our discussion about why CX has helped drive growth, success, and loyalty.
