How Is Your CX Readiness?
Customer Experience is growing more important for B2B Sales teams in Financial Services. Best practices are to assess and address your firm’s capabilities, and these topics are discussed in this article.
CEO’s Revenue Growth Case for Client Experience (CX)?
As a CEO or C-suite executive in financial services, would you like to see your annual revenue increase per customer or client? How does 1.5X sound? Even better, how does 2.4X sound as an annual increase in revenue per customer? In dollar or financial terms, that’s an additional $140,000 for every $100k in existing annual revenue per client.
So how are B2B sellers in financial services performing around Customer Experience? Based on our revenue and sales growth diagnostics with twenty firms since our formation and several recent virtual workshops, it’s an area of significant impact and investment. Most recently, a $6B+ publicly traded mortgage/real estate service provider realized that just by focusing on their existing top 100 accounts and improving the client experience, they would dramatically improve their chance of creating another $50 million in new revenue for 2021.
What Size of Investments Are Being Made in CX?
As a result of the need for differentiation and creating revenue growth in competitive markets, companies have jumped into CX with both feet, investing heavily so they can capture the benefits that come from being a true CX leader. We have found that the average company is spending ~6% of their recurring revenue on staff, software and programs for CX.
Programs – Over half are running 1 or More Customer Feedback Programs: These include CSAT, NPS, Voice of the Customer and more.
Staff – 3 out of 4 Companies have Dedicated Customer Success Teams: These are teams whose sole responsibility is to ensure customer success. These teams do not carry quota and are above and beyond Support, Services and other customer service functions. On average, companies have 1 Customer Success Manager (CSM) for every $3.5M in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR).
Software – Companies have implemented Dedicated Customer Success Software: These include specialty CSM software solutions such as Gainsight and Totango, as well as companies who have built internal Customer Success solutions on top of their Salesforce.com system.
CX Framework for Success and Getting Started
First, start with an introductory diagnostic assessment with M. Allen and understand where your firm is strong and where the attention will need to be applied in your strategy formulation. After the initial diagnostic, the following areas of a strategy should be developed:
1. CX Planning
What should you do around your strategic approach?
Planning should include setting your CX Vision & Strategy, CX Governance, conducting a CX Touchpoint Analysis and CX Capabilities Assessment.
Tasks include:
CX Vision & Strategy: Client Experience (CX) Design should begin with a clear vision that is linked to the brand promise of the organization. Vision defines both the customer outcomes and the process of achieving those outcomes. This allows you to focus on the “how” and the “why” when generating measurable outcomes for your customers. Tools used in this activity include:
Brand Promise, Mission, Vision, & Values Definition
Customer Experience (CX) & Outcomes Definition
CX Design Objectives & Strategy
CX Maturity Assessment
CX Return on Investment (ROI)
2. CX Design
The policies, processes, and business rules that provide the “logic” for how the business is run. Some of this is embedded in the systems, some of this taught to your associates.
Mastery of how your customers prefer to interact with your brand will highlight their real (and perceived) experiences. This ultimately leads to increased customer lifetime value and retention due to attention focused on the customer. By designing the ideal customer experience, the “journey” becomes just as important as the outcome.
Tools used here will include:
CX Ecosystem Design
Physical facilities (i.e. real estate, tangible assets)
Virtual facilities (i.e. ERP, CRM, Web, Apps)
Customer Journey Mapping
Inner loop design
Outer loop design
Touchpoint Prioritization
Major Interaction (MI) Design
Personalization of Interactions
Contextualization of Messaging
3. CX Execution
Effectively launch CX, the entire company is enabled at every step along the customer journey.
CX initiatives and launches should be phased, so it does not overwhelm your organization. Finally, you must enable everyone, so they can deliver the ideal customer experience you desire for your customers.
Tools used here will include:
Launch Project Plan (with Roles & Responsibilities)
Communication Plan and Playbook
CX Training Guidance
CX Coaching Playbook
Closing Keys to Success
We can’t stress enough that delivering real value on your CX initiative and roadmap should be an agile and iterative process. Here are some closing recommendations to follow in establishing your Customer Experience organization and initiative:
The Customer! Design around the Customer’s Priorities not the Internal Operation
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Hana Bank have been pioneers in this area. Digital components of their home-buying experience include using a smartphone’s location services to “point-shoot” properties and view details, making an appointment with a lender from the phone, calculating limits and receiving pre-approval via an app, and using mobile wallet to pay a deposit.
Simplify! Products & Processes
Commonwealth Bank of Australia, for instance, went from hundreds down to 18 core products. Improved time-to-market by over 75% and reduced processing errors by over 30%.
Accelerate Speed to Market
Agile (modular/incremental) methodologies are key and partners (for core expertise/services) to enable speed.
Need assistance with planning your Customer Experience strategy? Even more importantly, do you want to know what your chances are in achieving your quota for 2021? Let's discuss our diagnostic and growth assessment services via a free initial consult. Contact us at mslonaker@mattallendevelopment.com.
