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Source: http://www.inmoment.com/feed/

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<description>Customer Experience Intelligence</description>
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<title>How to Improve Customer Experiences in a Meaningful and Transformative Way</title>
<link>http://inmoment.com/blog/how-to-improve-customer-experiences-in-a-meaningful-and-transformative-way/</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2020 19:04:23 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kiersten Lopez]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Thought Leadership]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://inmoment.com/?p=41155</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In our previous blog posts, we discussed what it means to listen effectively to customers in order to truly understand their feedback and its implications for a brand. What business leaders do with that feedback is crucial to driving significant, holistic customer experience improvement and a better financial outcome.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[In our previous blog posts, we discussed what it means to listen effectively to customers in order to truly understand their feedback and its implications for a brand. What business leaders do with that feedback is crucial to driving significant, holistic customer experience improvement and a better financial outcome.
<h2>Data Democratization</h2>
After listening to and understanding customers by contextualizing feedback in relation to customer profiles, as well as operational and financial data, it is imperative to share that information with as many relevant stakeholders as possible. These individuals vary from company to company but may generally include marketing and operational leadership, frontline managers, and, of course, any experience teams. Every perspective and area of expertise brought to the table increases the chance of finding a better solution (and of avoiding pitfalls).
This process of sharing customer feedback, capturing ideas from across the company, and sharing with the appropriate parties is known as data democratization, and it’s critical to meaningfully improving brand experience(s). 
<h2>Governance and Prioritization</h2>
Data democratization enables breaking down organizational silos, coordinating company-wide actions, and ensuring smooth hand-offs, all of which are essential for effective customer experience governance and prioritization. There are many benefits to coordinating CX improvement efforts across a company, including creating legitimacy and sponsorship for projects, establishing the depth and breadth of support necessary for concrete improvements, and ensuring that all projects are working toward the same objectives.
Concrete CX improvement has two components: fixing poor or broken experiences as they exist right now, and designing or redesigning new experiences. Once appropriate stakeholders have received and responded to contextualized customer data, they can contribute to a strategy to realize and implement changes. As changes are introduced, tested and measured, cohesive and effective CX governance will ensure that brands can identify, prioritize, and complete the action items that offer the biggest impact.
<h2>Closing the Loop</h2>
It’s vital that brands be especially vigilant about closing the loop(s) to achieve CX improvement. Closing the inner loop involves addressing and resolving individually submitted feedback, boosting customer retention and affinity. This process may also highlight issues that companies don’t know are occurring.
Closing the outer loop requires analyzing, testing, and fixing the root causes of any broken experiences that have broader implications beyond a unique customer. This process better enables companies to A/B test solutions and iterate the best improvements before rolling them out to customers. Brands can then collect more feedback to gauge satisfaction with changes and make adjustments as needed. Closing the outer loop ensures that a brand follows through on the changes it institutes by making the broader customer base aware of a new or redesigned experience.
<h2>Taking Improvement Further</h2>
Any improvement that results in a better experience for customers should be encouraged, but companies that seek truly transformational success also need to evaluate how changes can positively affect the bottom line.
Join us next week for the fourth and final discussion in our series to learn how to effectively monetize improvements by using a powerful paradigm that will enable your company to achieve its goals.
Want to learn more about creating an <a href="https://inmoment.com/resources/listen-understand-improve-monetize-a-proven-success-framework/">effective success framework</a> for your CX program? Check out our article on the subject, written by CX expert Eric Smuda, <a href="https://inmoment.com/resources/listen-understand-improve-monetize-a-proven-success-framework/">here</a>.
]]></content:encoded>
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<item>
<title>5 Cost-Effective Ways to Keep Furloughed Employees Engaged</title>
<link>http://inmoment.com/blog/5-cost-effective-ways-to-keep-furloughed-employees-engaged/</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 23 Jun 2020 06:39:27 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kiersten Lopez]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Thought Leadership]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://inmoment.com/?p=41147</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Though brands are contending with a lot of customer uncertainty at the current time, there’s another, equally important group with whom all organizations need to engage during this pandemic: furloughed employees.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Though brands are contending with a lot of customer uncertainty at the current time, there’s another, equally important group with whom all organizations need to engage during this pandemic: furloughed employees.
Just like customers, employees are facing tremendous stress and anxiety in the era of COVID-19. Nearly <a href="https://www.epi.org/blog/nearly-20-million-jobs-lost-by-july-due-to-the-coronavirus/">20 million</a> of them will likely be furloughed by July. Whether it’s the prospect of becoming unemployed or the reality of being furloughed, employees have found themselves surrounded by very existential threats as the Coronavirus pandemic continues to rage worldwide. Meanwhile, many firms are facing considerable resource challenges and may be wondering how to engage furloughed employees despite those challenges.
 
Though concerns like these are formidable, there are still effective and cost-free ways for brands to stay engaged with their employees during any large-scale crisis. True engagement requires trust, authenticity, and are based on building relationships, all of which these strategies are aimed at helping brands achieve.
What follows is a discussion of five powerful methods that companies can use to stay connected to their furloughed employees.
Today’s conversation will cover:
<ul>
<li>Employee Outreach</li>
<li>HR Lifelines</li>
<li>Internal Resources</li>
<li>Social Media</li>
<li>Charity Involvement</li>
</ul>
<h2>Employee Outreach</h2>
Whether it’s via video messages or company-wide emails, it is critical for brand executives and leaders to remain as connected with their furloughed employees as possible right now. For many companies, particularly large ones, this task is easier said than done, but receiving outreach from upper management can do wonders for employee morale. Of course, these messages need to be genuine—employees will feel that management is attempting to placate them if this outreach consists of, say, generic feel-good messages, which can end up stoking resentment instead of relief.
Companies can take that outreach a step further than just sending a general, company-wide video message. For example, a leading casino was forced to furlough 95% of its employees after various quarantine guidelines were enacted. Knowing that employee morale was essential to retention and brand advocacy, the casino’s executive team reached out to each and every furloughed employee via email, phone or text to check in one-on-one and let them know that they hadn’t been forgotten.
This strategy is essential for successful employee engagement for several reasons. First and foremost, it reminds furloughed employees that the brand they’re dedicating their careers to cares about their well-being. Similarly, it lets employees know that management cares about keeping them in the loop, which in turn keeps them invested in the company. Finally, this strategy helps employees stay passionate about their work. Multiple brands are utilizing this tactic to help ensure that their workforces will return to the office as brand advocates… not detractors.
<h2>HR Lifelines</h2>
Reaching out to furloughed employees is a great way to engage with them during the pandemic, but it’s also important to give them a means of starting a conversation on their own terms.
To that end, brands should open an email inbox that employees can access and that forwards messages directly to Human Resources, an internal crisis response team, or both. With a direct line like this in place, employees no longer have to wait for management outreach if they feel the need to approach them with a concern.
This tool is an effective means of employee engagement because, as we just mentioned, it allows employees to reach out to brands about any problems on their minds, which may not always be the same as the problems on management’s minds. Thus, a direct-to-HR inbox is both a useful communication tool and a great way for companies to build trust and a sense of authenticity with their employees.
<h2>Internal Resources</h2>
Though furloughed employees may reach out with novel concerns, it’s likely that the answers to many of their questions can be found within existing resources. Companies should always dispense HR handbooks and related media as a matter of course, but it’s also a good idea to highlight those resources during this pandemic.
To do this, brands should set up a centralized communication channel if they haven’t already done so, and disperse media like newsletters and announcements to keep everyone informed. This strategy is especially useful for businesses that may temporarily suspend login privileges for internal resources during a furlough. Companies can also use these media as a go-to for additional employee outreach, but they’re also useful means of linking back to resources just like HR handbooks.
This strategy has several advantages. First, it gives furloughed employees even more means of getting their questions answered and concerns addressed on their own terms, which goes a long way toward helping them feel invested in a brand. Additionally, by opening the floor to multiple online resources, companies can help ensure that their aforementioned HR inbox doesn’t get overwhelmed, especially with concerns that HR materials may already address.
<h2>Social Media</h2>
Social media can be an excellent platform for staying in touch with furloughed employees, especially if an organization doesn’t yet have an internal, centralized communication platform. Businesses can stabilize employee morale by building a central social media channel with which to post announcements and updates. They can also create hubs that employees can use to stay in touch, post positive stories, and ask questions. Facebook and its groups tool suit these purposes particularly well.
One business put social media to more uses than just creating company updates. In fact, the company went the extra mile by leadership posting their own positive Covid-19 stories and encouraging their Team Members to post their own positive stories for all to view. This strategy helped stabilize employee morale and ensured a positive impression of the brand. Some brands may find a combination of internal communication platforms and social media to be effective as well.
<h2>Charity Involvement</h2>
As the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified, more brands have ramped up their contributions to and advocacy for charitable causes. Businesses should take any opportunities they can to get furloughed employees involved with causes like these.
Furloughed employees don’t have to be expected to contribute money, either. Whether it’s volunteering time or contributing any other available resources, donating to a common charitable cause can strengthen furloughed employees’ connection to their brand and each other, helping them retain their sense of connection, in a world that may feel isolated at times.
Plus, let it not be forgotten that assisting charitable and common causes whenever possible is more important than ever right now.
<h2>Keeping The Flame Alive</h2>
As we mention above, employees are facing uncertainty, anxiety and stress in these challenging times. But both these emotions and employees’ sense of connection to their organization can be managed by the tactics that we’ve talked about. Leadership can conquer uncertainty in their employees by reaching out directly. An HR inbox gives employees a place to express their own concerns and thus reduce anxiety. Constantly pointing these individuals toward resources and social media communication can further reduce stress.
All of these strategies can help organizations build healthy long-term relationships with their employees at little to no cost, and, as we discussed, help ensure that employees eventually return to the workplace with a positive impression of the brand they work for and greater passion for their work. These factors can help organizations regain their footing and beyond once this pandemic is behind us.
Knowing how to engage employees during this difficult time can be a challenge, so we distilled our employee experience expertise into a new webinar, “<a href="https://get.inmoment.com/covid-19_revealing_the_power/">Revealing the Power of Experience Programs in a Time of Crisis</a>,” that you can access for free <a href="https://get.inmoment.com/covid-19_revealing_the_power/">here</a>!
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>How to Truly Understand Customer Needs, Wants, and Expectations</title>
<link>http://inmoment.com/blog/how-to-truly-understand-customer-needs-wants-and-expectations/</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 18 Jun 2020 06:43:26 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kiersten Lopez]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Thought Leadership]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://inmoment.com/?p=41129</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Delivering an effective customer experience is a journey, not a destination. If brands want to achieve transformational success, positively affect the bottom line, and create a difference for their customers, they need to not only listen to those individuals, but also understand who they are, what they’re seeking, and the experiences they’re having.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Delivering an effective customer experience is a journey, not a destination. If brands want to achieve transformational success, positively affect the bottom line, and create a difference for their customers, they need to not only listen to those individuals, but also understand who they are, what they’re seeking, and the experiences they’re having.
Whereas the previous conversation in this series focused on how to effectively listen to customers, today’s discussion tackles the next step in the process—understanding them. So, let’s touch on the benefits of taking time to understand who your customers are, what they’re looking for, the operational and financial realities associated with their experiences, and how that intelligence can produce meaningful success.
<h2>Solving for X </h2>
Listening to customers is obviously crucial to CX success, but the journey toward building a better experience doesn’t stop there. Once companies collect customer feedback via a variety of methods and sources, the next step in this process is to combine customer feedback with a database or CRM so that they can better understand who is providing feedback. Companies can also segment this feedback by loyalty or non-loyalty club members, tiers within a loyalty program, or CLV tiers.
Put simply, the brands that take time to truly dive into understanding who their customers are and what they want makes it much easier to prioritize gathered intelligence. Understanding customers also simplifies identifying actionable intel, which in turn enables companies to give customers more personalized experiences.
<h2>Tools of The Trade </h2>
Similarly to listening for customer stories, there are three key tools that companies should use concurrently in their journey toward better customer understanding. The first is key driver analysis. Brands can better understand customer acquisition, retention, and churn by analyzing the key drivers affecting those movements.
Predictive analytics, meanwhile, are an effective means of discerning what customers are looking for. This tool can also be leveraged to identify what those same individuals may seek from a brand in the future or what actions they may take later on.
The final and most important tool of note here, though, is sentiment analysis. Sentiment analysis can detect how strongly customers feel about an experience (be that positive or negative sentiment). This heightened awareness of customer sentiment is vital to actually understanding them.
<h2>The Final Blend </h2>
Customer profile information, behavioral or purchase history, and sentiment are all valuable information for companies to have close at hand, but they don’t provide a full understanding of the customer experience on their own. For that, companies need to contextualize customer feedback with financial metrics, operational metrics, and employee perspectives.
Adding these metrics and insights to a blend of customer information is vital for getting the full context underlying those individuals’ journeys. Brands that can see who their customers are and how that likeness plays out against financial and operational information will attain a full understanding of the customers’ perceptions of their experiences and why they happened that way. Adding internal context and ideas from employees also helps brands know how an experience can be improved.
Once organizations have profiles of their customers’ desires, experiences, and future intentions, they can go about applying that information to the experiences that they provide and create transformative success for both themselves and the frontline employees who sustain the brand. This allows companies to both personalize the individual experience as much as possible and to design new experiences based on their customer knowledge and segmentation.
Be sure to check out the next installment in our series to learn more about experience improvement.
Want to learn more about creating an effective success framework for your CX program? Check out our article on the subject, written by InMoment CX expert Eric Smuda, <a href="https://inmoment.com/resources/listen-understand-improve-monetize-a-proven-success-framework/">here.</a>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>CX Trends: How Brands Can Thrive, Not Just Survive, During and After COVID-19</title>
<link>http://inmoment.com/blog/cx-trends-how-brands-can-thrive-not-just-survive-during-and-after-covid-19/</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 2020 05:29:20 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kiersten Lopez]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Best Practices]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://inmoment.com/?p=41127</guid>
<description><![CDATA[If you’re a business owner, you’ve probably heard at least one musing or another about how the strongest brands are the ones that can best adapt to change. That quote is especially true in times as unprecedented as the COVID-19 pandemic.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[If you’re a business owner, you’ve probably heard at least one musing or another about how the strongest brands are the ones that can best adapt to change. That quote is especially true in times as unprecedented as the COVID-19 pandemic.
As we acknowledge in our trends report on this issue, it’s difficult (if not impossible) for brands to prepare for every eventuality, especially one as heartstopping as a worldwide pandemic. However, that doesn’t mean that companies shouldn’t try, and it certainly doesn’t mean that brands that try don’t stand a good chance of <a href="https://inmoment.com/resources/inmoment-cx-trends-report-your-post-pandemic-playbook/?utm_medium=resource&utm_source=resource_center&utm_campaign=general_content&utm_content=trends_report_blog_1">finding a way forward</a>. Here’s how brands can do precisely that.
<h2>Speed: The Name of The Game</h2>
It’s never too late to create the processes and teams that brands need to adapt to a crisis like this. <a href="https://inmoment.com/resources/inmoment-cx-trends-report-your-post-pandemic-playbook/?utm_medium=resource&utm_source=resource_center&utm_campaign=general_content&utm_content=trends_report_blog_1">Our research</a> indicates that the faster an organization acts to put these changes in place, the easier it will be for brands to maintain positive customer sentiment even in conditions as adverse as these.
Consider, for example, the gulf that lies between customer perceptions of the restaurant industry and those of online retailers. When the pandemic began truly ramping up, many restaurants responded by quickly changing teams and processes so that they could keep providing excellent experiences.
These establishments were able to maintain positive customer sentiment in a number of ways. First, they made it clear that they took customer health seriously by encouraging social distancing and even closing dine-in services. Then, they quickly adapted new strategies like curbside and third-party delivery to keep the meals going and to encourage customers to keep returning.
Finally, many restaurants were able to accomplish all of this without overburdening customers. Indeed, our research shows that the only difference many customers noticed was that they didn’t need to venture outside to grab their favorite grub!
All told, restaurants were able to keep customer sentiment positive by recognizing an encroaching threat and working quickly to adapt to it. As a result, many of these establishments continue to enjoy business even in an age of closed dining rooms and stringent social distancing guidelines.
<h2>Left Behind</h2>
Restaurants are a great COVID-era brand success story, but the same cannot be said of every industry. As we mentioned earlier, there’s a stark difference between customer perceptions of restaurants versus online retailers, and the X factor here, again, is adaptation.
When the pandemic arrived to American shores in earnest, many online retailers were slow to react. They failed to adjust incoming shipments and were slow to follow up on how that logistical change affected their stock, leading to, well, much less of it.
Additionally, a lot of online retailers also failed to take order pace and workplace safety measures into account. They did not attempt to anticipate how the pandemic would affect certain items’ stock, and they also left many of their fulfillment centers bereft of the workplace safety measures that other industries adopted in the face of the pandemic.
All of this inability to adapt did not stay confined in-house. Before long, customers became adversely affected by these retailers’ surprising slowness to adapt, resulting in overwhelmed call centers, negative comments, and unimpressed customers. Many customers were also outraged at these retailers’ seeming indifference toward employee safety, a fact that many of these individuals are paying attention to and will remember when choosing a brand to shop with in the future.
<h2>Going With the Flow</h2>
There’s an old Greek proverb about reeds surviving storms because they can bend with the current, while the oak tree is destroyed because it’s too stiff to adapt to the tempest. The same holds true for organizations and COVID—the brands that adapt will come out the other side of this pandemic in much better shape than the ones that don’t.
As we’ve illustrated with the examples above and as our research demonstrates, brand survival and brand adaptation are one in the same. Companies that can change teams and processes—that can bend with the proverbial current—will still provide quality experiences for customers. They will thus survive and thrive during and after COVID-19.
Want to learn more about how to survive and thrive in the age of COVID-19? Be sure to read our Special Edition CX Trends Report “<a href="https://inmoment.com/resources/inmoment-cx-trends-report-your-post-pandemic-playbook/?utm_medium=resource&utm_source=resource_center&utm_campaign=general_content&utm_content=trends_report_blog_1">Your Post-Pandemic Playbook</a>” for additional tips and insights.
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>How to Effectively Listen to Customers</title>
<link>http://inmoment.com/blog/how-to-effectively-listen-to-customers/</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2020 06:34:45 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kiersten Lopez]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Thought Leadership]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://inmoment.com/?p=41117</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Though listening to customers is merely the first step in a wider, effective framework for customer experience (CX) program success, doing so enables brands to better understand what customers are looking for and to deliver real business outcomes, not just keep track of metrics.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Customer needs, wants, and expectations are changing rapidly, and brands that want to keep up need to aggressively monitor customer commentary if they hope to continue providing the experiences that those individuals seek. Though listening to customers is merely the first step in a wider, <a href="https://inmoment.com/resources/listen-understand-improve-monetize-a-proven-success-framework/">effective framework</a> for customer experience (CX) program success, doing so enables brands to better understand what customers are looking for and to deliver real business outcomes, not just keep track of metrics.
With those in mind, let’s take a closer look at how to effectively listen to customers and how doing so enables wider CX achievement.
<h2>I Hear You</h2>
The first step companies can take toward better customer listening is to carry that function out in as many forms as possible. Surveys, for example, remain a useful means of gathering customer feedback, particularly when questions are written in an open-ended manner and encourage customers to submit information about the topics they care about, not just what the brand dispersing those surveys might.
Though surveys remain relevant in the modern experience landscape, there are other tools that brands should also use to gather the richest feedback they can. Multimedia feedback options are a must in this day and age, especially as many customers find image and video the most ideal forms of self-expression. Options like these can be included in both surveys and in-app digital intercepts.
It’s important for brands seeking richer customer stories to insert feedback opportunities into numerous touchpoints, which is one reason why website feedback options are also handy. Customers appreciate being able to submit feedback even as they’re taking a journey with a brand, and website feedback can be an invaluable means of enabling that.
Finally, companies need to pay close attention to what customers are saying on social media and other customer service channels. Though it should come as a surprise to no one, these forms of communication can provide invaluable feedback that brands can put toward a better experience.
<h2>The Point of Better Data</h2>
It’s not enough for organizations to pick one of those aforementioned listening methods and run with it—rather, as we mentioned at the beginning of this discussion, brands need to use as many feedback methods as possible concurrently. By listening for customer stories in as many places and with as many methods as possible, companies can drastically improve the odds they’ll receive quality, actionable feedback.
It’s also important for brands to gather information like this from an oft-overlooked data source: employees. Employees are integral to providing a quality experience and are brands’ customer-facing front line, so it’s safe to assume that they also have valuable intelligence for companies to reap and make use of. Thus, brands should pay close attention to soliciting feedback from both customers and employees.
Organizations that gather all of this feedback will be best positioned to understand who their customers are, what sorts of experiences they’re seeking, and how to meet customer needs and expectations even as they evolve in real-time. Now that we’ve discussed how to better listen to customers, be sure to check out the next chat in our series, understanding the customer, to learn more about building a better experience.
Want to learn more about creating an effective success framework for your CX program? Check out our POV on the subject, written by inveterate CX expert Eric Smuda, <a href="https://inmoment.com/resources/listen-understand-improve-monetize-a-proven-success-framework/">here</a>.
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>5 Keys to Effective Governance of Your CX Program</title>
<link>http://inmoment.com/blog/5-keys-to-effective-governance-of-your-cx-program/</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 09 Jun 2020 06:24:33 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kiersten Lopez]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Best Practices]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://inmoment.com/?p=41115</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Whether companies are new to the CX world or looking to brush up their brand, it never hurts to (re)visit the building blocks of effective CX governance. A well-governed CX program can help brands achieve transformational success, a better bottom line, and an improved experience for their customers]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[As businesses slowly reopen and some semblance of “normalcy” creeps back into customers’ lives, organizations are faced with an opportunity to define and find success in a post-COVID world. Customer experience (CX) programs are the best means of acquiring new customers, retaining previous ones, cross-selling within existing customer bases, and lowering cost to serve, among other benefits that brands will sorely need as they reestablish business as usual.
Whether companies are new to the CX world or looking to brush up their brand, it never hurts to (re)visit the building blocks of effective CX governance. <a href="https://get.inmoment.com/roi-solving-problems/">A well-governed CX program</a> can help brands achieve transformational success, a better bottom line, and an improved experience for their customers.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at five key elements crucial to effective CX governance:
<ul>
<li>Focus</li>
<li>Alignment</li>
<li>Visibility</li>
<li>Accountability</li>
<li>Management</li>
</ul>
<h2>Key #1: Focus</h2>
Seeking to deliver a better experience for customers and achieve meaningful transformation is all well and good, but what does that goal look like for your brand specifically? Brands may be united in their aspiration to deliver those goals, but getting there looks completely different in every industry from construction to coffee.
That’s why it’s important for brands to sit down and define specific, concrete goals that they want to achieve through the power of customer experience. Think about what you want your organization to accomplish—could the company stand to improve its customer retention? What about lowering cost to serve or getting better at closing the loop with customers? 
 
Creating a focus like this enables organizations to build better CX programs and keep their eye on the ball as it grows and delivers results. It also allows brands to track their progress and introduce or subtract program elements as needed.
<h2>Key #2: Alignment</h2>
The next step companies need to take after defining goals for their CX program is to align the proper stakeholders and resources. For some brands, this might mean creating a CXO position or aligning customer service, operations and financial departments. For others, it could result in creating an entire CX team and enmeshing it alongside customer-facing departments. Either way, it’s important to get all the right players in the same room.
Aligning the right stakeholders also enables organizations to close the outer loop, i.e. adopt a company-wide culture dedicated to customer success and continuous improvement. Metrics like the Net Promoter Score and its underlying philosophy, the Net Promoter System, are also helpful here. 
Stakeholder alignment ultimately prevents customer experience from being relegated to one departmental silo and instills it as a fundamental value of doing business. This can help gear an entire organization toward continuous improvement and, ultimately, success.
<h2>Key #3: Visibility</h2>
There’s another reason why it pays to make CX an organization-wide effort: visibility. Visibility goes a long way toward inspiring employees and departments to work in concert toward an improved experience.
As we just discussed, keeping CX initiatives cooped up within a single team or department actually makes executing those initiatives harder. Sure, organizations might attain some results, but making initiatives visible across departments enables those other groups to help work toward more ambitious goals and, again, inspires all employees (customer-facing and otherwise) to work toward a better experience and transformative achievement.
<h2>Key #4: Accountability</h2>
Focus and alignment can help a CX program proliferate—accountability helps ensure that the work actually gets done. This point begs little elaboration, but once brands focus and establish both goals and KPIs for their CX program, the stakeholders involved need to hold each other accountable if they hope to hit those goals.
More specifically, CX teams should establish a regular cadence for meeting, reviewing metrics, and looking for ways to adapt today’s progress to tomorrow’s CX goals. It’s key that stakeholders review KPIs, customer data, and financial and operational metrics at these times.
<h2>Key #5: Management</h2>
Focus, alignment, visibility, and accountability all feed directly into this fifth and most important element. Effective CX governance means effective management, which means defining a specific focus for a CX program, aligning all of the key players and resources, allowing CX enthusiasm to flourish organization-wide, and keeping those aforementioned players accountable.
All of this is easier said than done, and there’s no silver bullet for the job, but great CX management comes from effectively governing its four preceding elements. Organizations that can pull that off will reap the success they’ll need to (re)establish a foothold in the post-COVID world and beyond.
Want to learn more about how you can structure your CX governance for success—and to prove ROI? Listen in to this latest webinar that includes brand new research from CX Network <a href="https://get.inmoment.com/roi-solving-problems/">here!</a>
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<item>
<title>How to Achieve Effective Listening in A Post-COVID World</title>
<link>http://inmoment.com/blog/how-to-achieve-effective-listening-in-a-post-covid-world/</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 04 Jun 2020 07:15:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kiersten Lopez]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Best Practices]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://inmoment.com/?p=6073</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Listening to customers, employees, non-buyers, and other groups of individuals is important for gaining a holistic understanding of a brand’s experience and marketplace position. Knowing these things will be more important perhaps now than ever before as brands attempt to resume business as usual.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[We’ve spent quite a lot of time discussing how brands can survive during the COVID-19 pandemic, but as shops reopen and governments begin lifting quarantine measures, it’s time to start talking about how businesses can thrive after this crisis.
Sure, COVID-19’s impact will continue to be felt for quite some time, but as customers return to storefronts and some semblance of normalcy is restored, it’s essential that companies consider how to <a href="https://get.inmoment.com/future-of-feedback-webinar-1/">effectively listen</a> to those individuals in a post-COVID world. What follows are a few ideas for achieving exactly that:
<ul>
<li>Listening to Customers</li>
<li>Listening to Employees</li>
<li>Listening to Non-Customers</li>
<li>Employing Digital Strategies</li>
</ul>
<h2>Listening to Customers</h2>
It’s imperative for businesses to keep their customer experience (CX) and listening programs on during this pandemic, and doubly so as this crisis subsides. The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed customer preferences, and tuning in to what these new desires are will make or break a brand’s post-pandemic success.
For that reason, organizations should not deactivate their listening programs as they reopen for business, let alone rely on insights gathered before quarantine measures took effect. Rather, organizations should tune their programs toward figuring out what customers want in their experiences as they emerge from quarantine.
Though these desires may vary somewhat from customer to customer, our research has identified a few common trends. For example, many customers want brands to maintain the safety standards they adopted during the pandemic, such as wider aisles for greater personal space and rigorous cleaning of self-checkout stations. Brands that listen for these and other preferences, then adjust their experience strategy accordingly, will find the success they need in a post-COVID world.
<h2>Listening to Employees</h2>
Employees have faced just as much uncertainty as customers in the age of COVID-19, if not more so. Between the threats of being furloughed or becoming flat-out unemployed, employees have had a lot of stress on their plate during this uncertain time. Brands that have spent the past few months listening closely to employee concerns and making adjustments wherever possible will emerge from this crisis much stronger than brands that don’t.
It’s key that brands continue paying this close of attention to employees as they return to work. Like their customer counterparts, employees care deeply about cleanliness measures, and will work much harder for managers and teams that they feel understand and sympathize with those desires.
There’s another reason to listen carefully to employees as quarantines subside. Depending on how they’ve been treated during this pandemic, many employees will hopefully return to work as brand advocates. Some, however, may return as detractors. Thus, it’s crucial for organizations to listen in not just to gauge how employees feel about their treatment during this pandemic, but also to address any disparities or negative sentiments.
<h2>Listening to Non-Customers</h2>
Maintaining relationships with existing customers is obviously important, but brands that want to aggressively regain footing they’ve lost during this pandemic should pay close attention to what non-customers are saying. This means expanding listening programs to cover multiple points of the customer journey, as well as giving non-buyers a chance to express their sentiments about a brand with tools like multimedia feedback.
This strategy can give organizations a heightened awareness of what potential buyers are looking for, and provide actionable insights with which to tweak experiences (within reason, of course) to better attract those individuals. This work can help businesses acquire and retain new groups of customers, which, again, is a must for companies looking to regroup and recoup after COVID-19.
<h2>Employing Digital Strategies</h2>
Listening to customers, employees, non-buyers, and other groups of individuals is important for gaining a holistic understanding of a brand’s experience and marketplace position. Knowing these things will be more important perhaps now than ever before as brands attempt to resume business as usual.
For those reasons, brands, again, should not deactivate listening programs or step away from digital strategies. If anything, companies need to adhere to both of those things more closely now than ever to find success in a post-COVID world. Multimedia feedback options, multi-point feedback, optimized survey design, and scanning for unsolicited feedback are but a few such strategies that brands can use to their advantage in a world after the Coronavirus.
Interested in learning more about the digital strategies brands can use to achieve after COVID-19? Check out our Webinar, “<a href="https://get.inmoment.com/future-of-feedback-webinar-1/">The Future of Feedback: Adapting Customer Listening for Our Changing World</a>” <a href="https://get.inmoment.com/future-of-feedback-webinar-1/">here</a>.
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</item>
<item>
<title>Empathy as a Commodity: Customer Experience Pivots Post-Pandemic</title>
<link>http://inmoment.com/blog/empathy-as-a-commodity-customer-experience-pivots-post-pandemic/</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 01 Jun 2020 23:56:25 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kiersten Lopez]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Thought Leadership]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://inmoment.com/?p=6069</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Brands that are able to harness empathy and work toward achieving a more authentic customer experience will reach the top of its vertical and continuously achieve meaningful improvement for itself and its customers.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[In the wake of COVID-19, the role of customer experience is at a crucial tipping point. Many organisations are asking, is CX a non-essential business function that gets cut when budgets are trimmed? Or does CX have an opportunity to move up the value chain in enterprise organisations? 
Since the pandemic transcended into Australia/New Zealand in early 2020, InMoment’s APAC Sales Director Simon Benns has seen an interesting shift toward an empathy economy. Brands that are able to harness empathy and work toward achieving a more authentic customer experience will reach the top of its vertical and continuously achieve meaningful improvement for itself and its customers.
<h2>Market Disruption has Exposed the Need for Experience Improvement</h2>
Years have passed since 2014 when Gartner boldly declared that “customer experience is the new battleground for businesses.” Despite most brands declaring to be customer-centric, many CX programs have failed to realise the full potential of an experience management program. According to a more recent Gartner report pre-pandemic, only 22% of CX Leaders can say that their programs exceeded customer expectations. Now in the wake of COVID-19, customer experience leaders have been forced into the spotlight and asked to prove the value of these experience management programs back to the business.
The global pandemic has led to a shifted relationship between businesses and their customers. Globally, brands have grappled with how to navigate through these turbulent times and emerge with customer relationships intact. Marketing strategies in most organisations have quickly pivoted to adapt with advertisements and corporate communications declaring “we are here to help!” From Dove telling consumers that it’s not important which brand of soap that we use as long as we wash our hands, to QBE giving cash back to every car insurance customer, as consumers we are being told that “we’ll get through this together.”
<h2>Empathy is Now a CX Commodity </h2>
Companies that are surviving and thriving are those that are exhibiting emotional intelligence and communicating with care, honesty, and empathy. In these emotionally testing times, many people are highly sensitive and prepared to make choices based on how much they feel a company truly understands them. Consumers are noticing when brands reach out to try and help, versus when they are being sold to. Brands are not competing over who has the best price or product, but on kindness. It feels that the battleground of the moment is empathy.
When the pandemic first surfaced, most brands could guess the way customers were feeling. When a crisis hits, humans are immediately looking for help, support and relief – they aren’t concerned with fancy platform upgrades or product features. But what about as we move out of the crisis period? What are customers looking for as we move into recovery? As a society, we are embarking on truly uncharted territory, and brands know they need to continue supporting, evolving and communicating with customers in a way that resonates. In the new ‘empathy economy’, the secret weapon lies within your customer feedback and your brand’s ability to turn those insights into action as quickly as possible.
<h2>Customer Feedback is Crucial in the Empathy Economy </h2>
The definition of “empathy” is “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.” Empathy is not about two-way communication, it is simply about listening and understanding. Thus, the ability to hear what your customers are saying, truly understand their needs, and find a solution to meet their evolving expectations is quickly becoming the most critical business function.
We’ve seen Australian brands turn off their VoC programs after seeing NPS scores drop. At a time when businesses should be listening to customers more than ever, many brands feel overwhelmed by the seemingly negative information and stop listening to customers all together. 
On the other hand, we’ve been inspired by Australian brands like The NRMA who have used information sources across the entire business to monitor and make decisions. The VoC team has implemented a Coronavirus text analytics category and is updating senior management twice a week, calling out references to COVID-19 within VoC trackers including critical areas of the business like roadside assistance and Thrifty car rentals. The team has also built a specific “Coronavirus” dashboard to monitor comments as they come through. Overall, the tool acts as a cross-check function for business decisions to ensure that opportunities to serve the customer better during this challenging time are not missed.
<h2>For Actionable Insights, Move from Past-Tense to Forward-Thinking Survey Questions</h2>
Historically, the true value of VoC programs has remained ambiguous due to the quality of insights. We know that the most impactful insights are those that give clear direction to the business and drive a significant uplift in the customer’s experience. The best insights are those that are based in solid research that encourage C-Suite leadership teams to stand up and pay attention. Unfortunately, most programs fall short when it comes to actionable program insights.
In order to see actionable insights, brands need to shift the mentality of CX as an indication of past performance, to a forward-thinking voice that can shape business strategy. One of the quickest ways to do this is by asking survey questions in present and future tense. 
In the past tense, survey questions look like “how did we do?” or “how was your experience 0-10?” Of course, there is a valuable place for types of questions by helping businesses learn from past mistakes. However, these past-tense questions can’t help your brand navigate economic uncertainty in the here and now.
Instead, transform your survey using forward-thinking questions. Instead of asking customers “how could we have served you better?” replace these with “how would you like us to serve you better in the future?” The latter question reframes the customer mindset and prompts them to feed back richer text verbatim. Using text analytics to categorise customer feedback, your business will have ideas and insights based on empirical evidence that will help drive your brand forward.
Brands can also ask customers how they plan to behave in the future. After the government announced new guidelines, we saw super funds across ANZ asked its members whether they were planning to take advantage of the $10,000 early access scheme. The insight from these forward-thinking survey questions allowed super funds to make better financial planning decisions. Ask your customers what they anticipate their needs to be, how they would like to receive brand messages and when they will need support. These kinds of actionable insights will inform your business roadmap and propel your brand forward.
<h2>Prompt Survey Respondents to Give Richer Feedback through Text Analytics</h2>
Increasing open-text verbatim is one of the most powerful ways to get actionable insights from customer feedback. The text analytics capability is an AI-driven approach that encourages respondents to expand on their survey answers. When the respondent gives feedback that is too short like “bad experience,” the platform function prompts the consumer with a message that says “can you tell us a bit more about your experience?.” The text analytics feature collects verbatim at scale, it can be overlaid with emotion and sentiment analysis, categorised into custom categories bespoke to your business and empowers your customers to answer freely. It is through this capability that your team can discover valuable insights that can be fed back to the business – the kind of insight that drives business strategy. These powerful customer insights are the key to running feedback from an indicator of past performance into research into future customer requirements.
<h2>Allow Your Customers to Get in Touch With You Wherever, Whenever </h2>
The way consumers are communicating and interacting with companies has shifted and many VoC programs have not kept up pace. For example, we have seen that website intercept surveys, which traditionally had a low response rate, have in some cases tripled their response rate in the last 6 weeks. The technology now exists to understand customer data in its native form. Move beyond calculating metrics to deriving deep meaning from the natural conversations customers are having through open-ended comments, social media channels, contact centers, video, voice and even images.
In essence, the very premise of NPS attempts to reduce the human experience to a simplified number. And at a larger scale, structured surveys simplify feedback, often removing the human element of a complex customer experience. The future of feedback is in allowing customers and employees to communicate whenever, wherever, and however they want, preserving that data in its native form, and then applying advanced analytics to uncover the intelligence that will drive true change in the business.
In an environment where the ability to listen to and truly understand your customers has become essential, companies with a mature VoC program have the capability to not just survive, but thrive into the post-pandemic economy. By moving your focus to the future tense, increasing open-ended response and by widening the listening posts, CX leaders can give their organisations the best chance in the new ‘empathy economy.” There is no better time for CX practitioners to reinvent their CX programs and lead their organisations forward into the unknown.
To learn more about how to evolve your CX program, check out our webinar “<a href="https://www.maritzcx.com/au/lp/assess-your-cx-program/">Now Is the Time to Assess & Reinvent Your CX Program</a>” for free <a href="https://www.maritzcx.com/au/lp/assess-your-cx-program/">here</a>!
Simon is Sales Director for InMoment in ANZ. Prior to joining InMoment he spent 10 years helping CX professionals all over the world network, learn and improve as Executive Director at IQPC. Outside of work he is a keen cyclist and squash player.
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>Keeping Up with the Changing Times in CX Technology—and Services</title>
<link>http://inmoment.com/blog/keeping-up-with-the-changing-times-in-cx-technology-and-services/</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 28 May 2020 07:14:18 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kiersten Lopez]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Best Practices]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://inmoment.com/?p=5999</guid>
<description><![CDATA[When companies combine strategic services and superior technology, they are setting themselves up not only for immediate improvement, but for long-term experience success that can grow and evolve with their business. It’s time for every company to make a change in their approach to deliver more valuable and inspiring experiences to customers and employees at every moment in their journey.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Though companies are increasingly investing in customer experience (CX), the gap is widening between a brand’s promise of great customer experience and the customers’ assessment of those experiences. In fact, Forrester’s CX Index shows that there are literally no companies perceived as excellent in basic customer experience journeys. Companies are clearly missing the mark despite their CX investment—but why?
<a href="https://reprints.forrester.com/#/assets/2/718/RES145617/reports">Read the full article…</a>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>Research Shows Customer Perceptions of Businesses During the COVID-19 Crisis</title>
<link>http://inmoment.com/blog/research-shows-customer-perceptions-of-businesses-during-the-covid-19-crisis/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 27 May 2020 06:26:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kiersten Lopez]]></dc:creator>
<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
<category><![CDATA[Thought Leadership]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://inmoment.com/?p=5998</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Research Report Background and Introduction
InMoment (formerly MaritzCX), conducts an ongoing study, CX Standards, tracking satisfaction with customers’ interactions with over 300 companies spanning 17 industries in the United States. Beginning on March 27, we added COVID-19-related questions to this study to track how well industries and businesses are doing serving customers during this crisis. Specifically, we asked:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">When it comes to responding to the Coronavirus (COVID-19), how would you rate [COMPANY]’s efforts to date?</li></ul>]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Research Report Background and Introduction</h2>
InMoment (formerly MaritzCX), conducts an ongoing study, CX Standards, tracking satisfaction with customers’ interactions with over 300 companies spanning 17 industries in the United States. Beginning on March 27, we added COVID-19-related questions to this study to track how well industries and businesses are doing serving customers during this crisis. Specifically, we asked:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">When it comes to responding to the Coronavirus (COVID-19), how would you rate [COMPANY]’s efforts to date? [1 = Very poor …10 = Excellent]</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">You rated [COMPANY] a score of [SCORE FROM QUESTION 1]. Can you give some specifics on their effort that led to this rating? [Open-Ended Comment]</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">How much will [COMPANY]’s efforts during this crisis affect your likelihood of doing business with them after the crisis? [1 = Not at all ….10 = Extremely] </li>
</ul>
<h2>What Does the Research Say About Who is Handling the Crisis Well and Who Isn’t? </h2>
As the research shows, restaurants, shipping, and to a lesser extent, investments are the best responding industries, and customers are most satisfied by their COVID-19 responses. And, we’d like to congratulate these businesses.
Interestingly enough, customers are least satisfied by COVID-19 responses of companies in technology (online-only retailers, mobile, and television) industries. This may be a result of increased demand for these services while people are sheltering at home, and the difficulty of meeting said demand.
<img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-6050" src="http://inmoment.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/COVID-boxbackground-1024x662.png" alt="" width="840" height="543" srcset="http://inmoment.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/COVID-boxbackground-1024x662.png 1024w, http://inmoment.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/COVID-boxbackground-300x194.png 300w, http://inmoment.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/COVID-boxbackground-768x497.png 768w, http://inmoment.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/COVID-boxbackground-1200x776.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px" />
<h2>How Well Are Different Industries Dealing with the COVID-19 Crisis? </h2>
When we plot how well industries are dealing with the COVID-19 crisis (horizontal axis) by how important their response to the crisis is in terms of determining future business from customers (vertical axis), we can see that several industries like insurance, bank and credit cards, and healthcare* ranked below average in their response to the crisis, but also ranked above average in customers’ views that their response is important. Companies in these industries are in jeopardy of losing customers due to their response, or non-response, to the crisis.
Other industries showing lesser COVID performance and relatively high importance are online-only retailers, television, retail grocery, and retail gas or convenience stores.
<img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-6051" src="http://inmoment.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/COVID2-boxbackground-1024x662.png" alt="" width="840" height="543" srcset="http://inmoment.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/COVID2-boxbackground-1024x662.png 1024w, http://inmoment.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/COVID2-boxbackground-300x194.png 300w, http://inmoment.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/COVID2-boxbackground-768x497.png 768w, http://inmoment.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/COVID2-boxbackground-1200x776.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px" />
<h2>Customers Explain What They Want and Don’t Want</h2>
Examination of respondents’ comments explaining why they gave companies high or low scores revealed what customers want from companies during this time. On the positive side, the most often-mentioned topics were enforcing social distancing, keeping a clean environment, showing an effort to address the crisis, providing personal protective gear, taking care of their customers, and providing good communication.
The reasons for lower ranking or more negative feedback included insufficient stock, no communication, not addressing the problem(s), and no social distancing. Additionally, this feedback noted lower scores for perceived poor treatment of employees.
<h2>The Worst Reaction: Inaction</h2>
Our research clearly indicates that the worst reaction companies can have to the COVID-19 crisis is inaction. Customers are appreciative of companies’ efforts to enforce and maintain social distancing rules. Unsurprisingly, they want to feel safe during this uncertain time. Customers also appreciate clear communication about what companies are doing to address the crisis.
It is important to remember that, to date, this information was collected when many businesses in the United States were shut down or working on a very limited basis. It will be interesting to see how customers’ perceptions of companies change as economies are “opened up” and more face-to-face business takes place again.
]]></content:encoded>
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