It is all about increasing or decreasing. Increasing revenue and/or decreasing costs. Using a CX strategy to improve sales and/or decrease marketing costs. Leaders must tie CX to business results.
Everyone wants to have the best experiences for their clients. Some even feel that driving up their overall client satisfaction score (sometimes at all costs) is a competitive edge. Innovative leaders understand that approach is too vague and not measurable in their world of “increasing and decreasing.” Clarity on if they love you or even what in particular they love about you will interest your executives but, they may not fund your CX initiative budget. A visionary CX strategist will tie specific business results (the ones the CEO consistently mutters about in the hallway) to her program. Moving past tracking to a higher client satisfaction score and demonstrating how it will improve the organization’s “increasing and decreasing” will win in your next budget cycle.
For professional services firms an easy example of cost savings is reducing client churn. Improving the retention of your current client base saves the cost of marketing and acquiring the replacement for revenue lost. A funny thing about improving the client experience for existing clients, they spend more. Now you have something on the “increasing” side of this equation.
It’s not all about the client retention. Most of our employees are technical experts in their respective practices. They are problem solvers at their very core and want nothing more than to delight the client representatives they engage with. Deploying a system that significantly improves a client experience improves the opportunity to delight the client and fulfill your employees. Fulfilled happy employees stay and are 12% more productive (Anchor-The Happiness Advantage.) To replace a mid-level employee the cost can be upwards of 150% of their annual salary. For high-level specialized employees the cost can rise to nearly 400% of their salary. Do a little math and you’ll help your executives understand how increasing employee retention will help in decreasing significant organizational costs.
Every firm is different in what is most important in the “increasing and decreasing” game. Find out what business results were in your last strategic plan and directly map them your CX strategy outcomes.