Achieve Excellence with CX Training

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Delivering exceptional customer experience (CX) is a skill and that means it can be trained and developed, like other abilities.

The key to achieving CX excellence is to train the right people, with the right skills, at the right time.

CX training is for (nearly) everyone.

Your front-line employees are an obvious priority for training on CX, Net Promoter Score (NPS), and Net Promoter System, but they aren’t the only ones who influence the customer journey. Even though back-end and behind-the-scenes functions don’t directly interface with customers, their work also impacts experience. It’s key for employees in all types of roles to understand the fundamentals of CX and how their efforts affect customer journeys and interactions.

Everyone in a direct, customer-facing role needs to learn (and practice) how to:

  • - Gather or find customer feedback
  • - React to customer feedback, especially when it’s challenging or emotionally charged
  • - Discuss and share customer feedback internally

Specific roles will have deeper training needs, especially if you need teams to change behaviors or their approach. For example, if product managers or IT folks aren’t accustomed to using customer feedback, they may need more coaching to make it a central part of their efforts. If your company uses journey managers, they’ll benefit from in-depth CX training and skill development. Some individuals and teams may pursue more comprehensive training and professional development, leading up to CX certification (CCX).

But the bigger point is this: journey managers and front-line workers are not the only employees who need CX training. CX strategies are most successful when all levels of the organization embrace a customer-centric approach. Nearly everyone in the organization should be trained in CX.

CX training covers a lot of ground.

Why should everyone be trained on CX? Because customer journeys cover a lot of ground. Every customer interaction (and handoff) needs to be tightly aligned. Building toward and attaining CX excellence takes companywide coordination.

And CX adds value. When you train employees to win and keep customers with CX, you teach them to increase customer loyalty and retention. When every person in the company is increasing lifetime customer value, you’ll be hard to compete against.

Everyone should know how to:

  • - Find, interpret and operationalize customer feedback
  • - Match CX metrics to departmental priorities and KPIs
  • - Approach problems with empathy for the customer
  • - Work across functions to put the customer first

You can’t expect employees to rise to an expectation of CX excellence that you haven’t prepared them for. If you want to create seamless experiences for your customers, support them with well-trained teams.

CX training and certification is continual.

Companies that embark on a CX transformation might think to start with a huge training push right at the outset. But CX training is not a one-and-done event. CX training should be refreshed every few months to stay top-of-mind and to address the most-current customer feedback.

Include CX training in the onboarding process for new employees in every function. And make the training consistent across functions, so everyone is trained the same way. That gives your company a common language to discuss what CX excellence looks like and reinforces it as an important part of the culture.

 

Companies that want to distinguish themselves on CX need to train for the job. Employees at every level of your organization can have a positive impact on customer experience, your brand and your bottom line.

 

Start your training with us. NPSx from Bain & Company can tailor CX training specifically for your operations and industry needs.

 

About the Author

Evan Brennan-Johnson

Communications Manager, NPSx