Senior Leadership Engagement & Ownership of CX
Customer experience has fast become a top priority for organizations endeavoring to deliver the promise of enhanced value, differentiation, efficiency, ease, emotional connection etc.
CX has indeed gone well beyond keeping a customer happy but instead designing and delivering customer-centric experiences – which is considered paramount to a brand’s identity and revenue growth. And if the customers like you and continue to like you, they will stick around for a long haul and become advocates of your brand and recommend you to others. Brands that share their values and best interest at heart are labeled as trustworthy and building positive memories and feelings to drive their loyalty.
For the organization, it’s not just investing in innovative technology but cultivating a company culture of employees who want authentically help their customers to their best ability.
But how can you put the customer’s needs and expectations at the center of every employee’s KPI and goals? As a CX leader, you need to become a trusted advisor to your team. We spoke with André Grandt, Customer Experience Chapter Lead & Transformation Officer, Roche Pharma, South Korea, who shared his thoughts on looking at the bigger picture –aligning with a positive mindset, staying focused and building relationships through real conversations.
What is one superpower you as a CX leader desire to have?
One superpower I would like to have as a CX professional is instant regeneration. This is because CX is ultimately not about winning or losing but rather perpetuating the game to advance a greater cause. In other words, I invite everyone joining the game of CX to play it with an infinite mindset. Hence, instant regeneration would enable me to play the game and serve the vision longer.
Who in the organization ideally owns CX to be successful?
Ideally, CX and its practices become a mindset and culture that manifest itself in the daily behaviors and values of everyone in the organization. While I appreciate that someone (any individual or team) needs to initiate this mindset change, I also invite the initiators to be humbled enough and realize that you might not be the one who ultimately own it as the journey progresses. In fact, I believe success of any CX program should be measured internally by the degree more and more people feel responsible for CX – from facility management all the way up to the CEO - and externally whether an organization is able to make people feel better and their lives easier.
What are your top 3 priorities as a CX leader?
My three priorities for this year for CX are:
1. To lead with a compelling & inspiring vision
2. To enable our internal partners with the skills, competencies & capabilities they need to accelerate our CX journey
3. To role model CX by becoming an ‘Anthropologist of our customers’
What is your vision for CX post pandemic?
Customer experience is so much more than just improving interactions between an organization and its customers. I encourage all of us to explore the power and possibilities CX can liberate for entire systems if we collectively shift our thinking from transaction and short-term gains focused intentions to fostering genuine relationships and advancing a shared purpose. Hence, I envision a CX world where everyone matters. A world where we pursue purpose before profit, appreciation of the ordinary, and build meaningful connections – an employee, a customer, a community, a society at a time.
