I read a great article today from the Harvard Business Journal entitled “Becoming a Customer Experience-Driven Company.” The author gives an anecdote we can all relate to – concerning the all to common lack of positive experiences with airlines – and uses his story to make this point: “customer experience is an organizational mindset. It’s not something a business buys, it’s something a business becomes.”

The author goes on to say:

“Though the business community increasingly recognizes the importance and power of customer experience to drive innovation and positive financial results (witnessed press coverage of such favorites as Apple, Amazon, Proctor and Gamble, and Nintendo), most companies have not successfully embraced it. This is because becoming customer experience-driven is not a snap. It’s more than just embrancing “The Power of Design”, or building empathy for your customers by observing them (though both of these things are important). Nor can you buy a technological fix, no matter what the CRM providers say.

“Embracing customer experience is a process, one that requires fundamental shifts in how your business behaves and is organized.”

Although a lot of this may seem like common sense – after all, positive customer experience is one of the foundational principles of good business right? – many companies seem to have a problem either understanding how customer’s experience their company or executing …

Why? I believe that a positive customer experience isn’t completely a matter of tactics. Businesses that value their customers and work to promote a positive customer experience in everything they do have some strong traits in common:

• They have strong leadership
• They have a clear vision
• Their employees feel valued and are dedicated to the vision!

That’s why no software or CRM or any other kind of tool can fix this problem in a business – it’s a total mindset, because how you treat your employees is reflected in the experience your customers have! How is your leadership? Is your executive leadership successfully passing on the company vision and gaining employee loyalty? What message are your customers getting in their experience?

(By the way, Google is a fantastic example of building a successful business by putting customer experience first – more commentary on that to come).

Technorati Tags: Customer Experience Focus, Positive Customer Experience