Cross-functional collaboration in your CX maturity roadmap
Importance of cross-functional collaboration in your CX maturity roadmap
Whether you’re only beginning to put in pitstops to cater to a better customer experience, or you’re further along on the learning curve, customer centricity has become a game-changer for any business. Right from legacy firms to up and coming firms, everyone is trying to understand what a customer wants and how you can deliver that value without losing sight of your business goals.
That is what brings us to CX maturity levels. It is not enough to have CX initiatives. You must also have a CX vision, a roadmap that takes you through stages of maturity so that your CX strategy can turn into a brand strategy and be imbibed into the very DNA of your organization. Before you read any further, take the CX Maturity Assessment to understand where your organization falls under the CX maturity model.
Now that you have a decent idea of where you stand, let’s work on the progress towards CX goals by talking about collaboration in cross-functional teams.
Why is collaboration in cross-functional teams important?
A cross-functional team is a group of individuals in your organization at different levels of expertise, experience and departments that work towards a common goal, in this case delivering the best customer experience possible.
If we look at the best practices of the CX programme, it will be one that does not work in silos so you can work through inefficiencies and create a cohesive and seamless experience for your customer.
Why can’t teams work in silos?
Each team handles a different aspect of CX
If your sales team does not talk to your design team about customer expectations or the feedback they have received on the ground, what is the point of developing new products or services?
Each team has its own set of KPIs
Your marketing team’s KPIs will be very different from your legal team’s KPIs. And yet both must cater to the customer, answer questions and ensure the right information reaches them at the right time.
Problem solving varies
It is possible that one team is facing an issue that another team has resolved successfully. If your teams are not cross collaborating, they will lose out on key insights.
How can you improve collaboration between teams?
Identifying and prioritizing measures in your CX maturity model will enable the business to work towards a common CX goal. For this, you need:
Leadership buy-in
CX is not something you do when you receive feedback or a post on a social media channel. It is something that needs to be followed by employees at all levels, especially the top management.
When they set the standard of what is expected from an employee, or how a customer is to be treated, that is when it percolates to the last mile employee.
Who is in-charge?
Everyone! Every team within your organization that has the potential to interact with your customers should and needs to be thinking about them at all times. CX is not a gimmick. It needs to be a part of your culture.
This is where technology and data can help you. A structured mechanism to capture customer feedback at different touchpoints of their journey interacting with your organization is one of the imperatives of a best-in-class CX programme.
Closing the feedback loop
It is not enough to set up a mechanism to capture feedback, you must also work on it. Using Net Promoter Score (NPS) is an easy and action-oriented way for you to do both. And the beauty of NPS is that it can be used for both internal and external customers.
Huddles are a great way to take out time from your daily business to spend some time on working on feedback and how best to address customer pain points. Read more about closing the loop here.
Accountability for performance
While you work towards your CX vision and providing the best experience to your external customer, don’t forget your internal customer. Right from new employees receiving a manual on company culture that captures your stance on customer experience to providing adequate training to them so they are equipped to handle customer questions, all of it comes under performance. An exchange of ideas and solutions are a great way to promote cross functional collaboration.
How ready is your organization to achieve CX excellence?
There are stages of maturity that every organization goes through while preparing its CX roadmap. Here’s a simple CX Maturity Assessment that you can take to understand what level your organization is at. We have defined 5 levels on this CX maturity roadmap, so take the assessment to know more.
And you know something else? Once you finish it, you will receive a free invite to a CX Masterclass from LitmusWorld, India’s most comprehensive experience management platform.
