Is customer experience an add on?

CDU Trends has published a piece by AJ Joplin, Senior Analyst at Forrester, outlining the four key pointers that show customer experience is unimportant and is treated as a mere afterthought.

These are:

1) “Research is undervalued, resulting in problematic, ideas-first approaches that largely ignore what customers say or expect.”

This results in approaches that can be out of date and ignore what the customers say or want. Much of this is comes from an egotistical approach where customer centricity is ignored. Decision makers should be more collaborative, especially with designers and CX professionals, so that customers can be put first and at the centre of everything.

2) “Synthesis skills are underdeveloped, severely impacting the data companies collect.”

Companies should conduct research, ideally qualitative and quantitative, at every point during the design framework to test and learn. With the emergence of remote testing platforms, collecting data is becoming easier, which enables the design of great experiences.

3) “Design frameworks are not leveraged and impact team and company strategy.”

Design frameworks need to be used when developing your user experience. These enable the creation of a shared language that places the user at the centre of ideas and solutions. If we operate in our own area and don’t adopt a shared language, this will be evident in the customer’s experience.

4) “Measurement is never a topic beyond metrics that feed bonuses.”

We need to be clear about what we want to learn. Measurement helps us plan, iterate and test, but we must be clear about what we want to learn. Journey measurement frameworks will help you decide what data you want to collect and how you will collect it.

AJ Joplin concludes by emphasising that

“Customers want delightful experiences, not a place in your operational process. Without well-synthesised, mixed-method data, you won’t be able to define or design for delight.”

If you need help with your CX strategy, customer journey mapping or design framework, get in touch, we're here to help.