Providing a great customer experience is the result of year-long efforts. It’s the pinnacle of your work to bring customer focus to the organization. What better way is there to use a pyramid as a visual? Pyramids are used in many parts of the business world. When it comes to safety, one fatal work accident is preceded by 300 lost time accidents and 30,000 near misses. Sales organizations use pyramids to show the significant number of leads, resulting in fewer proposals and an even smaller number of actual sales. Also, language skills can be displayed in a pyramid, from simple language abilities to highly developed international collaboration skills. And, of course, Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of basic needs divides our human needs into five categories, from physiological to self-actualization.
When it comes to dealing with the 21st-century customer, only a few companies reside at the top of the CX pyramid. Without trying to make a complete list, Apple, Amazon, Nike, IKEA, McDonald’s, or Southwest Airlines have reached that pinnacle all in their own ways and with their own philosophies.
The middle section of the CX pyramid is those who have started the journey with some great successes but haven’t achieved a seamless, reliable, and repeatable customer experience yet. Like United’s friendly skies, Microsoft’s ‘people-ready approach, or T-Mobile USA with its team of experts. That mid-section is growing as more and more companies understand that an integrated approach to the market is required. With everyone in the organization, from development to manufacturing, to service, and even finance and other corporate functions having the customer in mind.
And the bottom of the pyramid? All those who still let their developers run wild and let them build what they like, not necessarily what the customer is really asking for. Those companies typically invest in their commercial front-end to achieve great marketing and a world-class sales approach but often forget to bring the rest of the organization into the ‘customer obsession zone. The pyramid is helpful to visualize both the journey that is necessary and the commitment it takes to climb from one level to the next. From product orientation to making it easy for customers to interact with us to ultimately offering an experience and a relationship that forms the bond, turning one-timers into regulars.
