Having worked in Customer Experience (CX) for close to a year, I have come to realise that CX is an organisation mindset rather than it just being a job role.
Despite having a BSc Computer Science, MSc Software Engineering and MBA, I strongly feel that if they had taught CX at university, I would have been better prepared to start my professional role as a CSM.
CX is defined as a job role by some, an activity by a few and a department by others. Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight for example, refers to it as a company ‘philosophy’ and Cisco as a vendor refers to it as an organisational ‘mindset’.
I believe it is all of these! CX is about ensuring that the customers leverage their investments to meet their desired business outcomes.
Some find CX overwhelming and end up fearing it as a “big beast”, but take it from me, as a certified Customer Success Manager and someone who’s been doing CX for not too long, CX is simpler than many people think. It is going back to the basics. It is understanding the customer situation, the gaps, pain points, the stakeholders involved and what value they would like to make out of their investment in order to help them drive adoption and overcome any roadblocks to delivery or usage.
As CX touches every part of the organisation, it is important that it is driven from top down and adopted from bottom up. Developing and delivering a unique and positive customer experience is no longer an option or an after-thought.