Decoding the Customer

This CX Mini Masterclass explores some of the most pervasive missteps that organizations make with their CX metrics. Special guest and CX thought leader Stephanie Thum shares 4 of the most common pitfalls and their consequences. She also provides practical tips on how CX teams can turn things around. If you’re looking for some excellent food for thought on how to launch or fine-tune your approach to CX metrics, then this episode is for you. Insights from a special guest Stephanie has amassed deep expertise through her diverse professional background in the field of customer experience. While she’s often best known for her experience as one of the US federal government's first agency CX leads, she has also been a practitioner and consultant in the B2B world, working with small and mid-sized companies and was one of the founding members of the CXPA. She's a CCXP and has remained active with the association, even spending some time as part of the association's HQ team. She's written an ebook, Where Customer Experience Practices Haven't Landed in Business. If you'd like to get in touch, connect with her via LinkedIn or Twitter.   Stephanie Thum, CCXP If you'd like to hear more of Stephanie's insights on the show, be sure to check out her previous episodes. In episode 45 Stephanie re-framed how organizations should think of customers and shared practical ideas on how to do this. In episode 50, Stephanie dove into her area of expertise and covered trends with how CX is taking hold in government organizations. And in episode 55, she provided a step-by-step guide to CEOs on how to lead customer-centric change.   A focus on CX metrics If you are new to the CX profession, the world of CX metrics can be daunting. Even of you are a seasoned professional, CX metrics can be intimidating. That said, metrics are the lifeblood of and CX initiative, program or department. CX metrics are how we monitor progress and demonstrate impact, so we need to get over any discomfort we might have with this topic and stay attuned to how we can most effectively use the numbers.   4 common mistakes - and how to fix them Stephanie provided her insights on 4 of the most common missteps that teams make with how they manage CX metrics: Mistake #1: Top-line revenue tells you everything you need to know about customers’ experiences Yes, revenue can be a barometer on how happy customers are or how well products are doing in the marketplace, but it won't tell teams what is going right or wrong. So make sure you are reporting on a balanced mix of metrics and not reliant on just this number. Mistake #2: Thinking customer experience metrics make you look bad Sometimes the results might not be flattering, but that's not a reason to avoid them all together. Ensure that CX metrics are used to start constructive dialogue with your team, not as a policing mechanism. Mistake #3: Customer satisfaction is the only customer experience metric that matters There can be alluring simplicity in focusing on just one CX metric, but resist the temptation to do so. As with top line revenue, Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) has limited use as a metric-in-isolation. Embrace a wider scope of quantitative and qualitative data points. E.g. customer wait times, transaction completion rates, acceptance rates, types of customer compliments, verbatim feedback. Mistake #4: A once-per-year customer experience data review is all we need Customer needs and expectations aren't static. Service standards like wait times and processing times should keep pace with customer expectations. Look for data sources and CX metrics that are ongoing, so you can monitor how things are changing. Your organization is probably already gathering data that can be used for this purpose.   Want to keep learning about CX? If you’d like to checkout more of these CX Mini Masterclasses or listen to my longer format CX expert interviews, check out the full listing of episodes for this CX...

This CX Mini Masterclass explores the importance of human experience and why brands need to ensure that their promise is delivered to all stakeholder, not just customers. Special guest and CX thought leader, Pierre Daems, shares insights about why an ecosystem of human experiences is key to a brand's success. If you’re looking for inspiration on how the essence of brand promise extends beyond the customer experience, and why this is something CX professionals should care about, then this episode is for you. Insights from a special guest Pierre Daems is a seasoned expert in the field of customer experience.  He is the CEO of the French and Canadian strategy and management consultancy Aube Conseil, which specializes in customer experience management. Pierre is a CCXP, longstanding member of the CXPA and co-founder of the local CXPA communities in Paris and Montreal. He is a recognized expert and keynote speaker on customer experience management, with a focus on cities, airports, hospitals and a deep knowledge of Bank/insurance sector. If you are keen to get in touch with Pierre or follow his work, you can connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.       Pierre Daems, CCXP With such broad expertise working on citizen experience, patient experience and passenger experience, Pierre has been fortunate to help shape CX in a number of different sectors, for many years. For that reason, he's the ideal person to help CX professionals push their thinking beyond just customer experience.   What's beyond customer experience? We've all heard about the importance of employee experience. Happy, engaged employees are more likely to deliver good customer experience. Pierre suggests that we shouldn't stop there, but rather as CX practitioners, we should also understand the importance of other stakeholders and their experiences. Suppliers, partners, governments and even shareholders are not traditionally on the CX professional's radar, but they should be. These stakeholder groups still play an important role within the brand's ecosystem. In the case of suppliers and partners in particular, it's easy to see how their experience (much like that of an employee) would influence the customer experience.   The role of purpose Pierre suggests that a brand's purpose is at the heart of the human experience it delivers to all stakeholders. He uses the example of Michelin brand, and their purpose:   "The Michelin brand is the best expression of our Purpose: giving everyone a better way to move forward. It embodies the Group's strengths with our customers and partners around the world. It's a promise that defines us and commits us.” The Michelin Group A better way to move forward, isn't just about tires or helping passengers move from point A to point B, it's also applicable to shareholders, employees and others. The brand has decided to charge customers per kilometer rather than per tire, an innovative approach that delivers value to the company, its shareholders and customers. A great example of delivering the purpose to everyone, not just customers.   Want to keep learning about CX? If you’d like to checkout more of these CX Mini Masterclasses or listen to my longer format CX expert interviews, check out the full listing of episodes for this CX podcast. And if you are looking to super-charge your CX skills and continue learning, be sure to check out CX University. They have a great array of CXPA accredited training resources available on a flexible monthly subscription plan. Use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off your first month’s subscription and support this podcast. Decoding the Customer is a series of customer experience podcasts created and produced by Julia Ahlfeldt, CCXP. Julia is a customer experience strategist, speaker and business advisor. She is a Certified Customer Experience Professional and one of the top experts in customer experience management. To find out more about how Julia can help your business ...

User experience design expert, Jacques Oberholzer, shares his insights on UX and how businesses are dealing with today's digitally savvy customers. Jacques and show host, Julia, discuss the evolution of the field of user experience, the relationship between UX and CX and the latest trends in digital customer experiences. If you’re looking to stay abreast of the latest trends, capabilities and what's on the horizon with digital customer experiences, then this episode is for you.   UX and CX As more and more of the customer journey moves into the digital realm, it's important for CX teams to understand what consumers are looking for in digital experiences. Fortunately, there is an entire field of UX specialists out there focusing on how to make great experiences in the digital space (and beyond - though a lot of emphasis is being placed on digital). This begs the question of how UX differs from CX, and how these two functions should most effectively collaborate. Episode 56 explored the similarities and differences between UX and CX, and it was reassuring to hear a UX expert like Jacques corroborate the same key points. Essentially, we can think of both as functional areas that advocate for the needs of customers, but that UX tends to do this through the lens of a user's experience on a specific system, platform or touchpoint. We can think of CX as a more holistic look at a customer's overall experience, while UX zooms in on a specific subset of this.   The role of data One of the challenges with managing experiences in the non-digital world is that we have gaps in our understanding of the customer's experience. In a traditional retail context, for example, a retailer might only gather data about the customer at the point of sale. Information about their journey through the shop before purchase is largely unknown. Granted that might change with the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), but for now we have limited insight. That's definitely not the case in digital space, where every click produces a data point. In our conversation, Jacques highlighted the role of data as a game changer for digital UX. Website tracking has empowered organizations and their UX experts to quickly gather insights about what customers do and don't like. It's also forced UX specialists - many who hearken from a creative background - to learn the language of quantitative analysis and to figure out how to integrate this into their understanding of customer needs. These insights can help teams develop great websites, but they also bring the voice of the customer into the conversation early and often, something that can be simultaneously helpful and frustrating.   Major UX trends on the horizon Jacques and I discussed a number of UX trends that should be important considerations for CX professionals who want to help their organizations craft and deliver great digital experiences:   The move to mobile - consumers are doing more and more on their mobiles. From streaming to social media, many experiences skip the desktop all together and are mostly experienced through mobile devices. This has advantages and disadvantages. From a design perspective, mobiles present limited space for visual engagement. On the upside, mobiles had additional sensory features, like motion sensors, that enable brands to deliver richer digital experiences which just aren't possible on a desktop web interface. Hardware may drive the next wave of UX innovation - Jacques pointed out that UX innovation has probably plateaued with the current prevalent hardware (mobile phones, etc.). He thinks that hardware innovations like wearables and new phone features may dictate where UX goes next. The ethics of UX - Customers may be telling us that they like immersive online experiences, chatbots and tailored content, but is that actually good for them? UX designers are increasingly faced with questions of ethics and doing what's right.

This CX Mini Masterclass explores the key components of a successful CX program. There might not be a one-size-fits-all approach for CX management, but there are common threads among global best practices. Special guest Ben Motteram takes listeners through the 7 foundational components of a best in class CX program. If you are setting up, reshaping or refining a CX program in your organization, then this episode is for you.       Insights from a special guest Ben Motteram is a customer experience specialist based in Melbourne with over 20 years experience developing and implementing customer acquisition and retention strategies within some of Australia’s largest organisations. Through his consulting company, CXpert, Ben now assists clients in areas such as CX strategy, Voice of the Customer, and employee engagement. In December 2018, Ben was the only Australian named on a list of global thought leaders to follow on Twitter and his blog has been independently recognized for its insight on all things CX.   Ben Motteram This episode was Ben's second guest appearance on the show. If you missed his first Mini Masterclass episode on CX Strategy, be sure to check it out here.   Foundations of a CX program Normally I provide a synopsis of the episode in these show notes, but Ben has already created a stellar write up on his blog. And I'd encourage you to explore the rest of Ben's blog while your're there. It's packed with all sorts of other great gems and CX thought leadership. A truly fantastic resource for any CX professional.   Want to keep learning about CX? If you’d like to checkout more of these CX Mini Masterclasses or listen to my longer format CX expert interviews, check out the full listing of episodes for this CX podcast. And if you are looking to super-charge your CX skills and continue learning, be sure to check out CX University. They have a great array of CXPA accredited training resources available on a flexible monthly subscription plan. Use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off your first month’s subscription and support this podcast. Decoding the Customer is a series of customer experience podcasts created and produced by Julia Ahlfeldt, CCXP. Julia is a customer experience strategist, speaker and business advisor. She is a Certified Customer Experience Professional and one of the top experts in customer experience management. To find out more about how Julia can help your business achieve its CX goals, check out her customer experience advisory consulting services (including employee engagement, leadership alignment and CX strategy) or get in touch via email.       

This CX Mini Masterclass provides step by step instructions for how to develop a service blueprint, a key tool for any CX team embarking on service design. Show host and customer experience expert, Julia Ahlfeldt, explains what a service blueprint is, how you build one and – most importantly – how to use it. If you’re looking for a practical explanation of how to build and use a service blueprint, then this episode is for you.   The next step in service design Episode 58 looked at service design, which is the activity of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to improve its quality and the interaction between the service provider and its customers. And with most brands out there today delivering a hybrid of both goods and services, it’s important for teams to carefully orchestrate how they deliver experiences. If not, they'll risk things completely falling apart. Service blueprinting is an important step for any team looking to implement service design. The actions needed for an organization to deliver a service are often complex and need to be documented before plans can be made. That's what service blueprinting is all about.   Creating the service blueprint Service blueprinting is essentially a visual documentation of service design. To build a service blueprint you need to start with the customer journey. And in this case, it should be a very simplified version of the journey, highlighting the aspects of the journey where the organization in question plays a major role. Remember that when we map entire journeys, we need to consider experiences outside of the realm of just one brand’s interactions with the customer – but in this case we’re looking inward, so it’s OK.   A service blueprint often also includes a space for physical evidence, though this isn't required.   The next step is to capture the layers of service functions, starting with what the customer sees. In the world of service blueprinting, these are sometimes called front stage interactions. The next layer down captures the backstage interactions or the operational support that the customer doesn’t see, and finally every service blueprint should include a final layer of strategic support functions.     Download Julia's Service Blueprinting template       Leveraging the blueprint as a CX tool Like journey maps, service blueprints are highly dynamic CX tools that bridge the conceptual divide between the journey and a business’s operating model. Service design is about helping organizations coordinate their activities to deliver experiences. Anyone who has worked in a large corporation will know that the silo mentality is real! Service blueprints can help CX leaders unite teams around the customer journey in a number of ways: Demonstrating how teams from different organizations need to collaborate to deliver the journey. Clarifying team level contributions and determining KPIs that relate back to the journey. Conducting root cause analysis on where specific experiences are breaking down so that teams can work on solutions. Defining how teams will deliver new experiences, either by building future state service blueprints or by demonstrating how current actions would need to change to deliver a re-imagined experience. Want to keep learning about CX? If you’d like to checkout more of these CX Mini Masterclasses or listen to my longer format CX expert interviews, check out the full listing of episodes for this CX podcast. And if you are looking to super-charge your CX skills and continue learning, be sure to check out CX University. They have a great array of CXPA accredited training resources available on a flexible monthly subscription plan. Use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off your first month’s subscription and support this podcast. Decoding the Customer is a series of customer experience podcasts created and produced by Julia Ahlfeldt, CCXP.

This CX Mini Masterclass provides an overview of service design and why this is important for teams that are working on customer journey improvement. Show host and customer experience expert, Julia Ahlfeldt, explains how most brands these days provide a mix of goods and services and why service design plays a critical role in bringing customer journeys to life. If you want to learn about service design and its place in a CX professional's toolkit, then this episode is for you.       Goods vs. services To understand service design, we need to clarify the difference between goods and services in the marketplace. Goods are tangible items of value, like cars, sweaters or cartons of milk. Services are intangible items of value like expert advice or training. If we were to look at the consumer marketplace 100 years ago, most brands would have provided either a good or a service, with a few providing a hybrid of the two. In the modern marketplace, the reverse is true. Most organizations provide both goods and services. A medical clinic is a classic example of the goods/services hybrid; they provide a combination of tangible products in the form of medicine with medical consultation that is a service. SaaS providers are an excellent example of the hybrid of goods and services that is so pervasive in the modern marketplace. Brands like Google, Hubspot and others provide a good through their software, but they also provide a suite of services around that software to enhance its usage. Yes, there are definitely still organizations out there that provide just a product or just a service, but these are now the outliers. And with consumers doing so much more through digital channel in particular, it's given rise to a whole ecosystem of services to support customers.   Defining service design Episode 57 looked into design thinking, which was essentially born out of product design. While modern design thinking can also be used to creatively problem solve for service-based solutions, actually providing experiences that are based on a blend of goods and services is a complex undertaking. That is where service design comes in.   Service design is the activity of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to improve its quality and the interaction between the service provider and its customers. Wikipedia Service design is where teams lift up the hood and look at all the parts that are needed to make an experience happen. CX teams can dream up the most amazing customer experience in the world, but if the rest of the organization isn't equipped to deliver that experience, it’s all for not. So, service design is where we get to turn our perspective inwards to the people, processes and technology that make experiences happen. Service design clarifies the roles, responsibilities and inter-dependencies that are needed to deliver an experience. Service design unpacks this in terms of interactions that the customer sees and the layers of behind the scenes actions functions that are necessary. Wondering how to actually do service design? Stay tuned for episode 59...   Want to keep learning about CX? If you’d like to checkout more of these CX Mini Masterclasses or listen to my longer format CX expert interviews, check out the full listing of episodes for this CX podcast. And if you are looking to super-charge your CX skills and continue learning, be sure to check out CX University. They have a great array of CXPA accredited training resources available on a flexible monthly subscription plan. Use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off your first month’s subscription and support this podcast. Decoding the Customer is a series of customer experience podcasts created and produced by Julia Ahlfeldt, CCXP. Julia is a customer experience strategist, speaker and business advisor. She is a Certified Customer Experience Professional and one of the top experts in...

This CX Mini Masterclass provides an overview of design thinking and how this methodology can be used to craft new experiences, refine journeys or build solutions around the needs of other stakeholders. Show host and customer experience expert, Julia Ahlfeldt, explains the 5 key phases of the design thinking approach and how CX professionals can incorporate this into their repertoire. If you want to learn about the relationship between design thinking and CX management, then this episode is for you.       Not just another business buzzword You've probably heard the term "design thinking" before. Unlike "customer experience" or "user experience" (UX was the subject of episode 56), the concept of design thinking has been around for a bit longer. It also has a much less nebulous definition.   Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success. Tim Brown, Executive Chair of IDEO The origins of design thinking start in the late 1950s and early 1960s as creativity techniques for designers and engineers. Through the 1960s and 1970s design thinking methods and theories began to take hold in the fields of industrial design, architecture and product design. By the 1980s and 1990s people began talking about this in terms of human-centered design. During this time, design thinking firms such as IDEO came into being and the most innovative and forward-thinking organizations started to embed design-centered business management. From 2000 onward, we’ve seen the steady rise of design thinking as a proper business discipline that can be applied by organizations to many different contexts.   The 5-step methodology Design thinking aims to solve problems at the intersection of three things: desirability, viability and feasibility. Design thinking methodologies push teams to balance these competing forces. Unlike CX, which doesn't have a set approach or methodology, classic design thinking has an adaptable 5-step approach. This is often represented as a double diamond.     Empathize - arguably the most important phase of the process. This is all about understanding the user, their needs, feelings and perspective through research. When we talk about putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes, we’re essentially talking about establishing empathy. How can we build something for someone if we don’t understand who they are? Define - probably the step that most organizations neglect. Once we understand the user through empathizing, we need to leverage that information to establish their point of view and express the problem we want to solve. The more specific, the better. In design thinking the problem is often posed as a “How Might We” statement that give clues about the user and their needs. An example problem statement might sound something like: How might we provide quick and healthy meal options to the busy working mom on the go, this statement could experience several rounds of re-framing to make it more and more specific. Einstein once said that if he had an hour to solve a problem, he’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem. Einstein was onto something. Ideation - this is what people often think about when they envision design thinking. They imagine word clouds and post-it notes and all kinds of creative ideas flying around. Stages 1 and 2 are all about honing in on the user and the challenge, but ideation is where teams want to go wide again, imagine the possibilities and generate lots of options. Ideation is wonderful. It’s creative, exploratory and can be a lot of fun. Prototype - after ideation teams need to pick one idea to work on. Prototyping can take many forms: storyboarding, building with legos or crafting a small 3-d model. The important point is to make the idea real so that a user can begin to interact with it.

This CX Mini Masterclass provides clarity on the difference between user experience (UX) and customer experience (CX). Show host and customer experience expert, Julia Ahlfeldt, provides a definition of each and then explains the roles of CX vs. UX teams and how their work can complement one another. If you are looking to understand the distinction between UX and CX, then this episode is for you.       Navigating the buzzwords User experience (UX) is a buzzword in the business world. It's sometimes confused with customer experience. As the field of customer experience continues to gain momentum, it’s important to understand how other disciplines like user experience fit into the picture, so that CX professionals can effectively collaborate with these teams and help business leaders understand what’s what. Customer experience and user experience are related. We could think of them as cousins and good friends. Related, but still different. If we want to make a comparison between customer experience and user experience, the most logical place to start is with a definition of each.   Understanding CX On CX Day, the CXPA released a great video with a definition of customer experience. The definition that I use is similar to the CXPA. I cover this in detail in episode 14, but as a quick refresher, we can think of a brand’s customer experience as all the ways that a consumer interfaces with that particular brand. Customer experience is the combined effect of things like touchpoints, products, service support, communication, plus a whole bunch of other things. While the definition of a brand's customer experience is all encompassing, we must remember that as customers move through their lives, their individual journeys will include experiences beyond the confines of just one brand. Customer journeys don’t happen in a vacuum, they happen in the real world where people talk with their friends, read online reviews and interact with any number of other entities before or after they interface with your brand.   Defining UX I'm pleased that the CXPA has provided some clarity around the definition of CX. The professional community needed this clarity, and it's probably safe to say that the UX community could benefit form the same. There are a wide range of definitions out there. One of the most commonly referenced definitions is from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). They've defined UX as a person’s perceptions and responses resulting from the use and or anticipated use of a product, system or service. We could also interpret this as how a customer feels about every interaction they have with what’s in front of them while they’re using it.   CX vs. UX While UX and CX both pertain to a person’s interactions and their responses, user experience tends to look at this through the lens of an interaction with a particular system or touchpoint. And in practice, user experience assessment or user interface design normally hone in on an individual’s interactions with a specific thing. This makes UX essentially a subset of CX, and it explains why user experience maps often feel like a zoomed in look at a particular facet of the customer journey. In the business world, UX has gained notoriety as a practice for improving user experiences in the digital space. The definition of user experience isn’t necessarily restricted to the digital realm, but this is why people so often associate user experience design with developing tech solutions. It’s obvious that UX plays an important role in CX. With more and more of our experiences happening in the digital world, it’s crucial that UX and CX teams for work together. We don't always need to think of things in terms of CX vs. UX. In fact there are many opportunities for the two fields of work to collaborate and complement each other. For example, CX teams can help UX teams understand the bigger picture by incorporating customer experience principl...

This CX Mini Masterclass explores how leaders can champion the customer mandate. Great customer experience starts with the goals, data and a vision. Special guest and CX thought leader Stephanie Thum shares practical tips on on how to kick start CX alignment and how leaders can be prepared for the most common hurdles along the way. If you’ve been looking for some fresh ideas on fostering alignment, or some food for thought that you can send to your business’s leadership team, then this episode is for you. Insights from a special guest     Stephanie has amassed deep expertise through her diverse professional background in the field of customer experience. While she’s often best known for her experience as one of the US federal government's first agency CX leads, she has also been a practitioner and consultant in the B2B world, working with small and mid-sized companies and was one of the founding members of the CXPA. She's a CCXP and has remained active with the association, even spending some time as part of the association's HQ team. She's written an ebook, Where Customer Experience Practices Haven't Landed in Business. If you'd like to get in touch, connect with her via LinkedIn or Twitter.   Stephanie Thum, CCXP   The starting block for great customer experience Data and metrics are a logical place to start. Many organizations live and breathe "the numbers", so leaders are already primed to pay attention. Plus, most organizations are sitting on mountains of data. The next step is to identify how this data can be used to understand the customer and foster organizational accountability (e.g. as KPIs - see episode 53 for a deep dive on KPIs). Next, leaders should foster awareness and rally department leaders around these figures. Easier said than done, but Stephanie shares the story of a manufacturing CEO who started a weekly stand-up meetings with his plant manager, HR leader, and lead customer service rep to go over the data. The company's customer experience management efforts evolved from there. Once leaders are begin supporting CX, they can take the message to their teams, sharing results and helping individuals understand how their day to day responsibilities impact the bigger picture of CX.   6 expert tips Great customer experiences may start at the top, but rallying the rest of the organization, won't be without a few challenges along the way. Stephanie provided her insights on what to look out for, and how to respond:   Get comfortable being uncomfortable If the numbers aren’t great, get comfortable explaining the reasons why Align your management teams Present CX as a triage tool, not a policing mechanism Keep going, no matter what When the numbers are great, celebrate! When the numbers aren’t so great, don’t point fingers If you'd like additional insights from Stephanie, be sure to read her full article on this topic.   Want to keep learning about CX? If you’d like to checkout more of these CX Mini Masterclasses or listen to my longer format CX expert interviews, check out the full listing of episodes for this CX podcast. And if you are looking to super-charge your CX skills and continue learning, be sure to check out CX University. They have a great array of CXPA accredited training resources available on a flexible monthly subscription plan. Use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off your first month’s subscription and support this podcast. Decoding the Customer is a series of customer experience podcasts created and produced by Julia Ahlfeldt, CCXP. Julia is a customer experience strategist, speaker and business advisor. She is a Certified Customer Experience Professional and one of the top experts in customer experience management. To find out more about how Julia can help your business achieve its CX goals, check out her customer experience advisory consulting services (including customer insights, CX measurement, leadership alignment and CX change implementation) or get in touc...

This CX Mini Masterclass provides a simple and straightforward approach to prioritizing customer journey improvements. Show host and customer experience expert, Julia Ahlfeldt, explains why this is an important step for fostering organizational alignment. Julia then takes you through her prioritization methodology and discusses some key considerations. If you are looking to make sense of your laundry list of journey fixes, then this episode is for you.       Starting customer journey improvement wisely When teams map the customer journey, they often end up with a long list of customer journey improvement opportunities. Being confronted with a massive list of issues is a tough place to be. For teams that are just starting their customer-centric evolution, picking the right place to start can make or break the momentum of your CX change movement. The good news is that there is a straightforward answer. The first task at hand is to prioritize the journey improvements, based on the customer impact, then evaluate the cost/benefit as a secondary step. Organizations normally jump straight into advocating for the business's needs, but as with all things CX, we should anchor our decisions in the customer's needs.   A winning formula I suggest an initial assessment of customer journey improvement opportunities based on two criteria:   Number of customer (or potential customers) affected. Figure out how many consumers interface with the broken aspect of the journey. The degree to which the current broken experience goes against the organizations customer promise, experience principles or the definition of what good looks like. Establish a rating scale to "score" the experience. I suggest a scale of 1-10, but you could use a different scale, as long as the largest number rating is assigned to the worst experience. Once you've quantified these parameters for each of your identified customer experience issues, multiply the number of affected customers, by the experience rating to get your customer journey improvement prioritization score. The higher the score, the more urgent the journey improvement.   # affected X experience rating = prioritization score This methodology highlights issues that might seem minor, but could impact a huge number of customers or potential customers, as well as those that might impact a small number of customers, but with potentially brand damaging results. Once your team has evaluated potential journey journey fixes from a customer impact perspective, they can further refine the list based on cost, level of complexity, etc. Journeys are constantly evolving, and there will be multiple factors to consider, but the point here is that CX teams should take the outside-in view first.   Want to keep learning about CX? If you’d like to checkout more of these CX Mini Masterclasses or listen to my longer format CX expert interviews, check out the full listing of episodes for this CX podcast. And if you are looking to super-charge your CX skills and continue learning, be sure to check out CX University. They have a great array of CXPA accredited training resources available on a flexible monthly subscription plan. Use the code PODCAST10 to get 10% off your first month’s subscription and support this podcast. Decoding the Customer is a series of customer experience podcasts created and produced by Julia Ahlfeldt, CCXP. Julia is a customer experience strategist, speaker and business advisor. She is a Certified Customer Experience Professional and one of the top experts in customer experience management. To find out more about how Julia can help your business achieve its CX goals, check out her customer experience advisory consulting services (including B2B CX strategy) or get in touch via email.