Great CX is invisible

I love Mary Oliver's poems. They're some of the simplest yet immensely profound writing I've ever come across. So whenever I want a boost of positivity or want to feel lighter or rejuvenated, I seek solace in her works. I was going through one of her collections recently and came across these lines in a poem titled "Drifting":

How God, or the gods, are invisible,
quite understandable
But holiness is visible, entirely.

My mind immediately recalled a recent conversation with one of my teammates. She had said, "In my opinion, great CX is invisible. Customers get such a smooth and effortless experience that they don't even think about how much work has gone behind the scenes."

I was struck by this parallel between Oliver's words on divinity and holiness and my teammate's idea about great CX and all that's involved in making it happen.

Now, don't get me wrong: I don't intend to offend anyone by putting God and CX professionals—human beings—on the same plane. I just want you to focus your attention towards the parallels between holiness and CX.

Take a tree, for instance. All that we get to see are its trunk, branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits. But what about the roots that absorb water and nourish it? What about the chlorophyll that absorbs sunlight? What about the nitrogen that's central to producing said chlorophyll? None of these are visible, but they're what make a tree a tree. And not just trees; this complex, synchronous, invisible communion of different elements is essential for life on the whole.

You get the point, right? For your CX to be effective and memorable, a lot—and I repeat, a lot—of work and communication has to happen behind the scenes.

Here's what you need to do to deliver such an exemplary experience to your customers.

Get rid of siloed thinking

Your organization is definitely going to have different teams managing different business functions. There isn't going to be any change in that. But like in the example of the tree, all individual functions and teams have to work in synchrony in order to achieve growth. Therefore, work on improving communication, collaboration, and data sharing among teams. Set up workflows and automations that both notify and prompt action from relevant teams at relevant times in the customer journey. Any non-cooperation between teams or delays in sharing information ultimately impacts customers, who don't really care which team faltered at which point. In their minds, your business is one unit, and it's essential that your internal teams realize this fact and strategize and execute accordingly.

Minimize effort

Customer effort is one of the core elements of CX, and minimizing it as much as possible is, in our opinion, the most important area where you need to work extensively behind the scenes. And this applies to every single step throughout the customer journey. If it's a support interaction, your agents should have context about the customer's issue and history with your product or service—meaning you need to equip them with tools that provide this level of visibility and train them on how to access essential information easily.

Sometimes, this also requires changes in the basic infrastructure, as illustrated by the Haneda Airport in Japan. The weighing scales at this airport's check-in counters are hassle-free; passengers can just roll their luggage on to the scales instead of lifting and placing them on a raised platform. It's measures like these that stand out and make a big difference in CX, and you can make it possible for your customers only through empathy-driven R&D.

Work on achieving consistency

We've said this before and we'll say it again and again: CX and consistency go hand in hand. If a single positive experience gets you a foot in your customer's door, it's consistency that opens it up wide and gets you a seat at the table. And just like low effort, consistency is also a must throughout the customer journey. No matter which team/business function your customer interacts with, no matter which stage of the journey they're at, no matter which branch/outlet they visit, the experience has to be positive. That's why consistency requires an ocean of invisible work as well.

When customers have a consistently positive experience, it's the first thing that comes to their minds when someone asks them for information about your business. In that sense, consistency is the thin line between recommendation and rejection.

Empower employees to make decisions

This bit of advice applies mainly to businesses that offer services as opposed to products. Every now and then, your frontline employees are going to encounter a tricky situation or a complex customer issue or demand. How they navigate such instances is something that can make or break the CX you deliver. So what happens when a frontline worker comes to you—the manager—whenever they face such a difficult situation? The customer starts to become impatient, a negative impression takes root in their mind, and if the situation isn't resolved to their satisfaction, their experience is certainly going to be negative. In contrast, what if the same employee was empowered to make a decision on the spot and act on it? The situation gets de-escalated quickly, the customer's time isn't wasted, and most importantly, your teammate scores brownie points for trying, which leaves a positive impression on the customer.

Again, this kind of empowerment requires you to talk to your teammates behind the scenes, assure them that you'll have their back even if they falter once in a while, and promise to come to the rescue if a situation starts to get out of hand. In short, empowered employees lead to satisfied and loyal customers.

In summary, as Oliver puts it, "holiness is visible, entirely"—and so is good CX. Therefore, in order to manifest positive CX for your customers, follow the four best practices outlined in this article. Is there anything else that businesses can do to "show" good CX to their customers? Feel free to add your ideas in the comments.