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The 6 Pillars of High-Performance Customer Service Leadership: A Complete Guide to Building Exceptional Teams

July 23, 2026 Leave a comment

Introduction

Customer service leadership has never been more challenging.

Today’s leaders are expected to improve customer satisfaction, increase retention, reduce costs, develop employees, embrace artificial intelligence, and drive operational excellence—all while navigating rapidly changing customer expectations.

Yet despite investments in technology, automation, analytics, and process improvement, many organizations continue to struggle with employee engagement, inconsistent performance, and customer dissatisfaction.

The reason is often surprisingly simple.

Exceptional customer experiences are not created by technology alone. They are created by people.

More specifically, they are created by leaders who understand how to align people, processes, culture, and technology around a common objective: delivering exceptional value to customers. Organizations that consistently outperform their competitors almost always have leadership systems that intentionally develop employees, reinforce accountability, and foster continuous improvement. While technology and artificial intelligence continue to transform customer service, the organizations generating the greatest results recognize that leadership remains the ultimate differentiator. For additional insights into how AI is reshaping customer service operations, read my article, https://bit.ly/4aaFUNy, “The 10 Most Powerful Applications of AI in Customer Service — And the Platforms Actually Leading the Market”.

More specifically, they are created by leaders who establish clear expectations, develop talent, inspire purpose, foster trust, create customer-centric cultures, and continuously challenge their teams to improve.

When Customer Service Teams Struggle

When customer service teams struggle, the root cause is rarely the employees themselves. More often, the issue lies in the leadership systems, coaching practices, culture, and accountability structures that shape daily performance.

After more than two decades leading customer service, customer success, customer experience, CRM, consulting, sales, and operations organizations, I have learned that technology, processes, and organizational structures matter far less than most leaders believe. The highest-performing teams consistently excel in six critical leadership disciplines.

These six pillars form the foundation of a high-performance customer service organization capable of delivering exceptional customer experiences, engaged employees, operational excellence, and sustainable business results.

Effective customer service leadership requires far more than managing operations and service metrics. It requires creating an environment where employees can consistently deliver exceptional experiences while growing professionally and contributing to organizational success.

Customer Service Leadership framework showing the six pillars of high-performance teams

Pillar 1: Customer Service Leadership Through Performance & Accountability

Performance creates predictability. Accountability creates consistency.

Without clearly defined expectations, even the most talented employees can struggle. Great customer service organizations establish objective performance standards and create a culture where everyone understands what success looks like.

The first step is establishing SMART goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Employees should understand not only what is expected of them but also how their performance contributes to broader organizational objectives.

Successful leaders balance operational metrics such as Average Speed of Answer (ASA), Time to Resolution (TTR), First Contact Resolution (FCR), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Customer Effort Score (CES), and Net Promoter Score (NPS) with behavioral expectations around teamwork, professionalism, and customer advocacy.

Customer Service Leadership performance management and accountability model

Performance management should never be viewed as a once-a-year event. Instead, it should be reinforced through regular coaching discussions, performance reviews, and ongoing feedback.

One of the most important leadership responsibilities is distinguishing between skill issues and will issues. Skill issues require coaching, training, and development. Will issues require accountability and performance management. Leaders who fail to recognize the difference often apply the wrong solution to the wrong problem.

High-performing teams also develop peer accountability. Team members hold one another accountable for commitments, collaboration, and customer outcomes. Accountability becomes part of the culture rather than something imposed by management.

Leaders must also model accountability themselves. Employees quickly notice whether leaders follow through on commitments, communicate transparently, and hold themselves to the same standards they expect from others.

Leadership Takeaway

Great cultures are not built on good intentions. They are built on clear expectations, objective measures, consistent coaching, and accountability at every level of the organization.

Pillar 2: Customer Service Leadership Through Coaching & Mentoring

Great leaders do more than manage performance, they develop people.

While performance management focuses on today’s results, coaching and mentoring focus on tomorrow’s potential.

Every employee brings a unique combination of strengths, experiences, interests, aspirations, and challenges. Effective leaders invest time in understanding what motivates each team member and where they want to grow professionally.

The best coaching begins with curiosity. Leaders should seek to understand each employee’s career goals, strengths, preferred learning styles, and development opportunities. What motivates one employee may have little impact on another.

Empathy is equally important. Team members face personal and professional challenges that affect performance. Great leaders listen, seek understanding, and demonstrate genuine concern for their employees’ well-being. However, empathy should never replace accountability, and instead, it should enhance the effectiveness of performance conversations.

Individual development plans can be powerful tools for growth. These plans should identify key strengths to leverage, skill gaps to address, and career aspirations to support. Development should be personalized rather than standardized.

Stretch assignments are another critical leadership tool. Employees build confidence and competence when given opportunities to take on new responsibilities, lead projects, participate in cross-functional initiatives, or solve complex customer challenges.

Customer Service Leadership coaching and mentoring employeesShow more lines

Future leaders are often identified through these opportunities. Organizations that consistently develop internal talent create stronger succession pipelines and higher employee engagement.

The strongest examples of customer service leadership recognize that developing people is not a secondary responsibility—it is one of the primary drivers of long-term organizational performance.

Leadership Takeaway

The greatest legacy of any leader is not what they accomplish personally, but what they help others become.

Pillar 3: Service Leadership Through Motivation & Inspiration

Employees perform at higher levels when they understand why their work matters.

Unfortunately, many customer service teams become disconnected from the larger mission of the organization. Team members see transactions instead of impact. They observe tickets instead of customers. They analyze processes instead of purpose.

I once worked with a customer service organization supporting a medical device company. Despite supporting products that significantly improved patients’ lives, many employees viewed their roles as simply answering calls and resolving issues.

When leadership began sharing patient success stories and connecting daily activities to real human outcomes, employee engagement increased dramatically. Team members began to understand that their work extended far beyond service metrics. They were helping people live healthier, safer, and more productive lives.

Adding on to that, purpose is one of the most powerful motivators available to leaders. Recognition is equally important. Employees want to know their contributions matter. Great leaders celebrate professional accomplishments, personal milestones, certifications, promotions, work anniversaries, and examples of exceptional teamwork

Service leadership strategies for motivating and inspiring customer service teams

Motivation also increases when employees feel trusted and empowered. Leaders should provide appropriate decision-making authority and encourage ownership of customer outcomes.

Healthy competition can further enhance engagement. Team challenges, performance recognition programs, and collaborative goals can create energy and excitement when implemented thoughtfully.

Leadership Takeaway

Lastly, motivation occurs when employees understand the purpose behind their work, feel valued for their contributions, and believe their efforts make a meaningful difference.

Pillar 4: Customer Service Leadership – Creating a Customer First Culture

Many organizations claim to be customer-centric but fewer actually operate that way.

Customer-first cultures are built intentionally through leadership behaviors, organizational priorities, and daily decision-making.

A customer-first culture begins with a simple question:

“What is best for the customer?”

This last question should influence decisions ranging from process design and policy development to technology investments and employee behaviors.

Therefore, leaders should regularly share customer feedback, success stories, testimonials, and Voice of Customer insights with their teams. Customer comments help employees understand how their actions affect customer experiences.

Additionally, recognition programs should highlight employees who go above and beyond for customers. Whether resolving a difficult issue, saving a customer relationship, or creating a memorable experience, these stories reinforce desired behaviors throughout the organization.

Customer journey mapping can further strengthen customer-centric thinking. When employees understand the entire customer experience—not just the touchpoints they directly support—they make better decisions and identify opportunities for improvement.

Customer Service Leadership and customer-first culture development

Organizations should also treat customer complaints as valuable sources of insight. Complaints often reveal friction points, process failures, communication gaps, and unmet expectations that can drive meaningful improvements.

Leadership Takeaway

Customer-first cultures are not created through mission statements or posters on walls. They are built through daily actions, leadership decisions, and an unwavering commitment to customer success.

Pillar 5: Customer Experience Leadership Through Collaboration & Trust
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Trust is the foundation upon which all high-performing teams are built.

Without this trust, accountability feels punitive. Feedback feels personal. Collaboration becomes transactional. Innovation becomes risky.

Trust begins with psychological safety. Employees must feel comfortable sharing ideas, asking questions, admitting mistakes, and expressing concerns without fear of embarrassment or retaliation.

Consequently, research consistently shows that psychological safety is one of the strongest predictors of team effectiveness, collaboration, and innovation. Leaders who create environments where employees can speak openly, share concerns, and challenge assumptions without fear are more likely to build high-performing teams. Readers interested in exploring this concept further may find Harvard Business Review’s seminal article on psychological safety especially valuable: https://hbr.org/2023/02/what-is-psychological-safetyWhat Is Psychological Safety?.

Open communication is essential. Leaders should communicate transparently, provide regular updates, explain decisions, and encourage dialogue. Employees rarely expect leaders to have all the answers, but they do expect honesty.

Also, high-trust teams assume positive intent. Rather than immediately assigning blame, they focus on understanding situations, solving problems, and supporting one another.

Conflict should be addressed quickly and constructively. Healthy disagreement often leads to better decisions, but unresolved conflict can damage relationships and performance.

Successful teams also establish shared operating principles that guide behaviors and expectations. Examples include:

We communicate openly.
We support one another.
We hold each other accountable.
We assume positive intent.
We put customers first.
We solve problems together.

Correspondingly, cross-functional collaboration is another critical component of trust. Customer service rarely operates in isolation. Partnerships with sales, marketing, product, operations, finance, and technology teams are essential to delivering exceptional customer experiences.

Customer service leadership becomes significantly more effective when trust exists between leaders, employees, and cross-functional partners. Without trust, even the best processes and performance systems struggle to achieve their intended results.

Customer experience leadership built on trust and collaboration

Leadership Takeaway

Trust transforms a group of employees into a team. It accelerates performance, strengthens relationships, and enables every other leadership practice discussed in this article.

Pillar 6: Customer Service Leadership Through Innovation & Continuous Improvement

The strongest customer service teams do not simply execute processes efficiently but rather they continually improve them.

This is where great organizations separate themselves from good ones.

Customer expectations evolve. Technology evolves. Competitive pressures evolve. Teams that fail to innovate inevitably fall behind.

Furthermore, one of the most influential continuous improvement philosophies emerged from General Electric’s Work-Out initiative. Its premise was simple yet powerful:

Find a Better Way, Every Day.

The philosophy encouraged employees closest to the work to identify inefficiencies, eliminate bureaucracy, challenge assumptions, and continuously improve processes.

Customer service leaders should adopt a similar mindset.

Encourage teams to ask:

Why do we do it this way?
Is there a simpler approach?
Can we automate this process?
Can we reduce customer effort?
Can we improve the employee experience?
Can we eliminate unnecessary work?

Innovation should become part of everyday operations rather than an annual planning exercise.

Front-line employees often identify the best opportunities for improvement because they interact with customers daily. They see recurring pain points, process breakdowns, communication failures, and inefficiencies long before executives do.

The challenge is creating systems that capture and act upon those ideas.

Unquestionably, many organizations still rely on spreadsheets, email chains, or suggestion boxes to manage innovation. Unfortunately, good ideas often disappear into a black hole.

Leveraging Innovation Management Platforms

Consequently, leading organizations increasingly leverage Innovation Management Platforms to formalize and automate the innovation process.

Examples include:

Brightidea
IdeaScale
Qmarkets
HYPE Innovation
ITONICS
Wazoku
Planview IdeaPlace
Ideawake
Planbox
InnovationCast
Viima

Customer Service Leadership innovation and continuous improvement framework

Additionally, these platforms help organizations:

Capture employee ideas
Launch innovation campaigns
Facilitate collaboration
Prioritize initiatives
Track implementation progress
Measure business impact
Manage recognition programs
Leverage AI-assisted idea evaluation and categorization

The result is a repeatable innovation process rather than sporadic brainstorming sessions.

Leaders should also establish structured innovation programs that include:

Weekly idea submissions
Monthly innovation reviews
Quarterly improvement initiatives
Customer feedback workshops
Cross-functional innovation sessions
Continuous improvement councils

Equally important is recognizing innovation. What gets recognized gets repeated.

The Optimal Company & Team Innovation Operating System

Consider implementing:

Weekly Innovation Spotlight

Recognize employees who identify:

Customer experience improvements
Process enhancements
Automation opportunities
Cost-saving initiatives

Quarterly Innovation Awards

Recognize:

Most impactful implemented idea
Largest customer satisfaction improvement
Best productivity improvement
Most valuable cross-functional innovation

Annual Innovation Excellence Awards

Recognize:

Innovator of the Year
Customer Experience Innovation Award
Continuous Improvement Champion
Team Innovation Award

Innovation should ultimately connect back to measurable outcomes, including:

Higher CSAT
Higher NPS
Lower CES
Improved FCR
Faster TTR
Increased employee engagement
Greater productivity
Reduced cost-to-serve

Leadership Takeaway

Lastly, the best customer service organizations are not those with the smartest leaders. They are the ones that create systems enabling every employee to contribute ideas, challenge the status quo, and continuously improve the business.

Conclusion

Exceptional customer service leadership is not about managing tickets, queues, or service levels alone.

The most successful customer service leadership practices focus on building strong cultures, developing employees, strengthening accountability, and creating sustainable systems for continuous improvement.

Rather, it is about building an environment where people can perform, grow, contribute, collaborate, innovate, and consistently deliver exceptional customer experiences.

The six pillars of high-performance customer service leadership are:

Managing Performance & Accountability
Coaching & Mentoring Team Members
Motivating and Inspiring the Team
Creating a Customer-First Culture
Building Collaboration & Mutual Trust
Driving Innovation & Continuous Improvement

Organizations that master these six disciplines don’t simply create better customer service teams.

They create cultures capable of delivering sustainable competitive advantage through people, purpose, customer obsession, trust, and continuous improvement.

In a world increasingly shaped by automation and artificial intelligence, leadership remains the ultimate differentiator. Technology may enable great customer experiences, but exceptional leaders create the cultures that make them possible.

Therefore, the organizations that thrive in the years ahead will not necessarily be those with the most advanced technology. They will be the ones whose leaders consistently develop people, inspire innovation, and empower teams to deliver extraordinary value to customers every day.

Customer Service Leadership creating sustainable competitive advantage

HOW I HELP ORGANIZATIONS BUILD HIGH-PERFORMANCE CUSTOMER SERVICE CULTURES

Understanding the six pillars of customer service leadership is one thing.

Successfully embedding them into an organization’s culture, operating model, leadership practices, and employee experience is something entirely different.

Many organizations struggle not because they lack capable employees, but because they lack the leadership framework, accountability systems, coaching disciplines, customer-centric culture, and continuous improvement processes required to consistently achieve exceptional results.

Over the course of my career, I have helped organizations ranging from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises improve customer service, customer experience, customer success, CRM, sales, operations, employee engagement, organizational effectiveness, and digital transformation initiatives.

My experience includes leadership, consulting, and transformation work supporting organizations such as:

American Express • HP • Verizon • AT&T • Microsoft • Amazon • Hilton • Southwest Airlines • Ritz-Carlton • Pfizer • Toyota • SAP • Macys • Pfizer • Salesforce • Intuit • Cox Automotive • General Mills • INEOS Automotive and many other global brands (see below for full list).

I work with executive teams and customer-facing organizations to:

Build high-performance customer service cultures
Improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention
Develop stronger leadership and management capabilities
Create effective coaching and mentoring programs
Design customer-centric operating models
Improve employee engagement and accountability
Implement continuous improvement and innovation frameworks
Transform customer experience into a measurable competitive advantage
Align AI, technology, and process improvements with business outcomes

Therefore, the objective is straightforward:

Help organizations create stronger employees, stronger leaders, stronger customer relationships, and stronger business results.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steven Jeffes
Managing Director, LegendaryCX

Customer Experience Strategist | Customer Service Executive | Customer Success Leader | CRM & Digital Transformation Consultant | AI & Customer Experience Advisor

🌐 LegendaryCX: https://www.legendarycx.com
🌐 Professional Website: https://www.stevenjeffes.com
📧 Email: stevenjeffes@gmail.com
📞 Phone: (518) 339-5857

Lastly, to learn more about my background, leadership experience, consulting engagements, transformation initiatives, and career accomplishments, visit my professional career profile pages and website portfolio:

Executive Career Profile
Career Specialties & Expertise Overview
Leadership Accomplishments Portfolio
Selected Clients, Companies & Industry Experience
Speaking, Consulting & Advisory Services

LET’S START THE CONVERSATION

If your organization is looking to improve customer service performance, leadership effectiveness, customer experience, employee engagement, customer success, operational excellence, or AI-enabled service transformation, I would welcome the opportunity to discuss your goals.

The organizations that outperform their competitors rarely do so because of technology alone. They outperform because they develop exceptional leaders, exceptional cultures, and exceptional customer experiences.

Let’s explore how your organization can do the same.

Steven Jeffes
Managing Director, LegendaryCX
🌐 http://www.legendarycx.com
🌐 http://www.stevenjeffes.com
📧 stevenjeffes@gmail.com
📞 (518) 339-5857

“Building Legendary Customer Experiences Through Exceptional Leadership, Culture, Innovation, and Execution.”

Filed under Company Culture, Customer Experience, customer service, customer strategy Tagged with Building Trust in Teams, Business Transformation, Contact Center Leadership, continuous improvement, CSAT, customer centric culture, customer effort score, Customer Experience Consultant, Customer Experience Leadership, Customer Experience Management, customer experience strategy, customer experience transformation, Customer Loyalty, customer retention, customer satisfaction, customer service best practices, customer service excellence, customer service leadership, Customer Service Management, customer service metrics, customer service operations, customer service training, Customer Success Leadership, Customer Success Strategies, Customer Support Management, Customer-First Culture, Employee Accountability, Employee Coaching, Employee Development, Employee Engagement, first contact resolution, High Performance Teams, innovation management, Leadership Accountability, Leadership Coaching, Leadership Development, Leadership Effectiveness, LegendaryCX, Mentoring Employees, net promoter score, NPS, Operational Excellence, Organizational Culture, Performance Management, Service Excellence, Steven Jeffes, Steven Jeffes Blog, Team Collaboration, Team Motivation, Voice of the Customer

White Glove Customer Service and How to Operationalize It

May 28, 2026 Leave a comment

INTRODUCING: THE DEATH OF “STANDARD” CUSTOMER SERVICE AND THE RISE OF WHITE GLOVE CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Why Elite Customers Now Expect White Glove Customer Service, Concierge-Level Experiences

For decades, most companies treated customer service as a standardized operational function:

Same queue
Same process
Same escalation model
Same support experience

That model is rapidly collapsing.

Because not all customers create equal value.

Some customers:

Influence billions in purchasing decisions
Shape market perception
Control enterprise relationships
Influence Wall Street narratives
Drive ecosystem adoption
Accelerate or damage brand reputation

And increasingly, the companies winning at the highest levels understand something critically important:

High-value customers should never experience commodity service. They expect white glove customer service!

THE RISE OF THE WHITE GLOVE CUSTOMER SERVICE

The modern white glove service model is built around a simple premise:

The higher the customer value, influence, or strategic importance…

the more elevated, personalized, proactive, and frictionless the experience should become.

This is not favoritism.

It is intelligent customer strategy.

Many of the world’s most successful luxury, hospitality, financial services, and technology brands have quietly operated this way for decades.

Examples of World-Class White Glove Customer Service

EXAMPLE #1 — THE AMERICAN EXPRESS CENTURION MODEL

One of the most famous examples is the American Express Centurion Card, commonly referred to as the “Black Card.

“One of the most famous examples is the American Express Centurion Card, commonly referred to as the ‘Black Card,’ which helped redefine premium concierge-level customer experience through personalized service and elite relationship management.”

…with “premium concierge-level customer experience” linked to:

American Express Travel & Concierge Services

The Centurion experience was never simply about a payment card.

It was about creating:

Exclusivity
Status
Emotional connection
Personalized service
Operational prioritization
Elite access

The program became famous for:

Invitation-only membership
Dedicated concierge access
Personalized travel assistance
Event access
Emergency support
Premium reservations
White glove issue resolution
Highly personalized treatment experiences

The larger strategic insight was this:

The customer was no longer interacting with a call center.

They were interacting with a relationship ecosystem.

Over the course of my consulting and customer strategy work, I had the opportunity to help envision and architect several elite white glove customer experience concepts influenced by this exact model:

High-value customer segmentation
Concierge escalation paths
Elite service tiers
Proactive account orchestration
Executive relationship servicing
Differentiated support models for influential customers

The underlying principle was always the same:

Remove friction for the customers who matter most strategically.

Customer Service Evolution: From Commodity Support to Concierge

EXAMPLE #2 — THE RITZ-CARLTON SERVICE MODEL

Another legendary example is The Ritz-Carlton.

Ritz-Carlton became globally recognized not merely for luxury accommodations, but for:

Anticipatory service
Empowered employees
Personalized guest memory systems
Concierge-level personalization
Emotional recovery experiences
Service ownership culture

Its Club Level experience includes:

Dedicated concierge staff
Personalized planning assistance
Curated guest experiences
Elevated access models

The company became famous for stories where employees solved highly personalized customer problems far beyond standard policy expectations.

The lesson:

White glove service is not reactive support.

It is proactive emotional relationship management.

EXAMPLE #3 — NORDSTROM’S HIGH-VALUE CLIENTELING MODEL

Nordstrom pioneered high-touch retail clienteling long before most companies understood personalized commerce.

Its highest-value customers often receive:

Dedicated stylists
Personalized recommendations
Direct outreach
Curated experiences
Appointment-based service
Frictionless returns
Elevated relationship treatment

Luxury retailers increasingly use VIP clienteling models because a very small percentage of elite customers often generate disproportionate revenue.

This is a critical modern business reality:

A tiny percentage of customers often drive a massive percentage of profitability.

THE NEW REALITY: NOT ALL CUSTOMERS SHOULD EXPERIENCE THE SAME SERVICE MODEL

This is where many organizations still fail.

They continue operating:

One-size-fits-all support
Generic escalation structures
Reactive service models
Commodity treatment architectures

Meanwhile elite customers increasingly expect:

Immediate access
Contextual awareness
Proactive service
Continuity
Ownership
Relationship familiarity
Strategic treatment

A CEO, EVP, SVP, major investor, strategic influencer, or enterprise decision-maker should never feel like:

Ticket #48372
Another queue entry
Another escalation
Another transfer

THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF WHITE GLOVE CUSTOMER SERVICE

1. KNOW WHO MATTERS MOST

Not all customers create equal value.

Elite service begins with intelligent segmentation:

Revenue
Influence
Ecosystem importance
Expansion potential
Strategic visibility

2. REMOVE FRICTION AGGRESSIVELY

White glove customers should never:

Repeat themselves
Navigate complex IVRs
Restart conversations
Manage internal coordination

The organization should absorb the complexity — not the customer.

3. PROVIDE A SINGLE POINT OF OWNERSHIP

The most important phrase in white glove service is:

“I’ll personally handle this.”

Ownership creates emotional trust.

4. CREATE CONTEXTUAL MEMORY

Elite customers expect:

Rremembered preferences
Relationship continuity
Contextual intelligence
Historical awareness

They should feel recognized instantly.

5. PRIORITIZE SPEED WITHOUT SACRIFICING QUALITY

White glove service is not merely “fast.”

It is:

Precise
Informed
Orchestrated
High confidence

6. ANTICIPATE NEEDS BEFORE THEY BECOME PROBLEMS

True concierge organizations become predictive.

They proactively identify:

Risks
Delays
Disruptions
Lifecycle events
Unmet needs

before the customer asks.

7. EMPOWER FRONTLINE CONCIERGE TEAMS

Elite experiences collapse when concierge agents lack authority.

World-class white glove teams require:

Decision authority
Flexibility
Escalation access
Operational autonomy

8. DESIGN FOR EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE

White glove customers remember:

Confidence
Reassurance
Calmness
Trust
Competence

Not just transaction completion.

9. MEASURE RELATIONSHIP STRENGTH — NOT JUST EFFICIENCY

Traditional metrics:

AHT
SLA
ticket closure

are insufficient.

White glove metrics must include:

Executive trust
Relationship durability
Strategic account health
Advocacy
Concierge satisfaction
Influence retention

10. MAKE THE CUSTOMER FEEL IMPORTANT

Because they are.

Elite service ultimately communicates:

“You matter differently here.”

That emotional signal is enormously powerful.

The Ten Commandments of White Glove Customer Service - What capabilities are non-negotiable.

THE 10 PRE-REQUISITES FOR BUILDING A WHITE GLOVE CUSTOMER SERVICE

Many companies attempt white glove service without building the operational foundation required to sustain it.

That always fails.

1. CUSTOMER VALUE SEGMENTATION

Define:

Strategic customers
Executive customers
Influence tiers
VIP treatment criteria

2. DEDICATED CONCIERGE TEAMS

Do not mix:

Standard queues
Transactional service
Elite relationship management

These require different talent profiles.

3. ADVANCED AGENT CERTIFICATION

Concierge agents should undergo certification in:

Executive communication
Conflict recovery
Emotional intelligence
Operational orchestration
Relationship management
Industry expertise

4. CONTEXTUAL CUSTOMER INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS

Agents need:

Unified customer profiles
Historical context
Lifecycle visibility
Relationship intelligence
Preference management

5. PROACTIVE MONITORING CAPABILITIES

Elite service organizations proactively monitor:

Account health
Usage anomalies
Risk indicators
Escalation patterns
Sentiment shifts

6. WHITE GLOVE HANDLING STANDARDS

Define:

Response times
Escalation ownership
Communication cadence
Executive outreach protocols
Recovery standards

7. CROSS-FUNCTIONAL ESCALATION ACCESS

Concierge teams require rapid access into:

Engineering
Product
Operations
Logistics
Marketing
Pricing
Executive leadership

8. SPECIALIZED PERFORMANCE METRICS

Measure:

Relationship durability
Expansion rates
Executive satisfaction
Trust indicators
Advocacy
Retention quality

9. CULTURAL ALIGNMENT

White glove service cannot operate inside:

Cost-first cultures
Rigid bureaucracy
Empowerment-resistant organizations

The culture must support elevated treatment models.

10. EXECUTIVE COMMITMENT

White glove service requires leadership commitment.

Because premium service models are not cheap.

But losing elite customers is far more expensive.

White Glove Customer Service: Personalized, Proactive, Frictionless.

THE FUTURE OF WHITE GLOVE CUSTOMER SERVICE

The future of customer experience is not:

Equal treatment
Standardized support
Generic service models

It is:

intelligently differentiated relationship experiences.

The organizations that win the next decade will understand:

High-value customers should never experience commodity operations.

They should experience:

Confidence
Continuity
Ownership
Access
Orchestration
Emotional assurance
Strategic partnership

FINAL THOUGHT

The companies creating the strongest loyalty in the modern economy are no longer delivering “customer service.”

They are delivering:

relationship privilege.

That is the future of elite customer experience.

And the organizations that operationalize it correctly will create:

Higher retention
Stronger advocacy
Deeper loyalty
Greater expansion
More resilient executive relationships
Dramatically stronger long-term profitability

Because when elite customers feel truly understood, protected, prioritized, and valued…

they rarely leave.

Interested in architecting a world-class level white glove customer experience program? Contact Customer Experience strategist Steve Jeffes at stevenjeffes@gmail.com or 518-339-5857. Below is a small sample of the companies I have helped elevate their customer experience to best world-class.

Steven Jeffes: Selected Companies & Clients

Your Customer Service-Focused AI Is Saving Money and Potentially Destroying Your Customer Base

March 31, 2026 Leave a comment

Reduce cost, not loyalty: How to effectively deploy AI customer service without eroding your customer base.

How many times have customers contacted a company…

…and been immediately pushed into an AI customer service experience that lacks the context, intelligence, or capabilities needed to resolve their issue, leaving them trapped in loops, repeating themselves, and getting no closer to a solution?

Is that good customer service? Of course not.

What starts as a simple interaction quickly turns into something else entirely:

Customers get stuck in loops
They’re misrouted to the wrong solutions
Frustration builds with every interaction
And eventually—they disengage altogether

This isn’t random. It’s a predictable pattern.

…and many companies are currently falling into this AI trap where they’ve underestimated the effort and steps necessary to shore up the foundation upon which AI operates. Without undertaking this foundational first step in implementing AI, companies are rushing toward the shiny object of immediate cost reduction, while planting a long-term time bomb of much higher customer churn driven by frustration with AI that doesn’t serve their needs.

AI can reduce cost, or it can improve customer outcomes.

Very few companies are doing both.

Chart 1 - The Customer Frustration Spectrum / Degradation Curve

Customers don’t go from satisfied to churn overnight.
They move through this progression, often unnoticed, until they disengage completely. So why are so many companies deploying AI in ways that feel exactly like this?

Read on to understand where companies are getting this wrong, and how to implement AI the right way without frustrating the hell out of your customers.

The Real Problem Isn’t AI Customer Service – It’s How You’re Implementing It

Most organizations didn’t get AI wrong because the technology failed.

They got it wrong because they skipped the foundational prerequisites required to make AI effective in a customer environment.

Instead, they:

Deployed AI into broken processes
Optimized for cost instead of customer value
Measured success with the wrong KPIs
Ignored adoption, context, and customer intelligence

The result?

AI is performing exactly as designed, efficiently reducing cost, while simultaneously eroding customer relationships.

The Root Cause: Missing the 8 Prerequisites for AI Customer Service Success

AI in Customer Experience is not a plug-and-play solution.

It is an amplifier of your operating model.

If the foundation is flawed, AI scales the flaw. Remember the old adage, Garbage In, Garbage Out? This applies to AI implementation as well.

If the foundation is strong, AI scales value.

The difference comes down to whether you’ve established these 8 Prerequisites for AI implementation:

The 8 Prerequisites to Implementing AI the Right Way

Before you can implement AI effectively, you need the right foundation in place.

These are the essential components that determine whether AI drives better customer outcomes, or quietly creates risk of customer churn.

Chart 2 – The Essential 8 Foundational Steps to Successful AI Implementation

Miss any one of these—and AI stops creating value and starts creating problems.

1. A Clearly Defined Customer Outcome Strategy (Not a Cost Reduction Strategy)

Successful AI Customer Service initiatives begin with a clearly defined customer outcome strategy rather than a pure cost-reduction objective.

Before AI can improve anything, you need to be clear on what success actually looks like for your customers. Most organizations start with cost targets, but customers don’t measure you on cost, they measure you on outcomes.

Customer Impact:
If this isn’t defined, the customer experiences faster responses but not better outcomes. Their issue may be “handled”, from the company’s myopic perspective, but the customer’s problem is not actually solved.

If your AI initiative starts with:

“Reduce cost”
“Deflect tickets”
“Replace agents”

You’ve already lost.

AI must be anchored to:

Retention (GRR / NRR)
Expansion
Time to Value (TTV)
Adoption depth
Customer effort
CSAT per AI interaction

AI should optimize for customer value creation, not cost extraction.

2. A Unified, Multi-Source Voice of Customer (VoC) System

AI can only be as effective as the data it learns from. If customer information is scattered across systems, teams, and touchpoints, AI never sees the full picture and, therefore, can rarely solve the customer’s request efficiently or effectively.

Customer Impact:
The customer has to repeat themselves across channels because no one, and no system, has the full picture of their history, context, or prior interactions.

AI is only as good as the data feeding it.

Most companies rely on fragmented inputs:
- Support tickets
- Surveys
- CRM notes

That’s insufficient.

You need a single converged Voice of the Customer (VOC) system integrating:

Behavioral data (usage, adoption)
Interaction data (support, sales, training)
Sentiment signals (NPS, CSAT, qualitative feedback)
Operational data (delivery, onboarding, success plans)

When unified, this becomes:

A predictive engine for churn, expansion, and experience breakdowns (97%+ accuracy is achievable).

3) Clean Ticket Taxonomy & Interaction Classification

Before AI can understand your customers, it needs a clear and consistent way to categorize what those customers are actually contacting you about.

Customer Impact:
The customer gets routed incorrectly, receives irrelevant answers, or is forced through multiple loops because the system doesn’t even understand what their issue actually is.

That’s what a ticket taxonomy is.

It’s simply a structured way of labeling every customer interaction, the why they reached out, what the issue was, and how it was resolved, using standardized categories across your entire organization.

Without this structure, your data becomes inconsistent and unreliable. The same issue might be labeled five different ways by five different people or systems.

And when that happens:

Your AI isn’t learning patterns, it’s learning confusion.

To be effective, a ticket taxonomy must be intentionally designed and consistently applied across the organization.

At a minimum, it should standardize how every interaction is classified across the following dimensions:

Standardized reason codes across all channels
Consistent tagging (intent, root cause, outcome)
Alignment across support, success, product, and training
Elimination of “miscellaneous / other” black holes

If your taxonomy is broken, your AI is learning the wrong patterns at scale.

4. Clean, Structured, and Governed Data Architecture

Effective AI Customer Service depends on clean, structured, and governed data that can be trusted across every customer interaction.

Even with the right data sources, AI still depends on how clean, consistent, and structured that data is. If your data is incomplete, inconsistent, or owned by no one, AI will scale those problems quickly.

Customer Impact:
The customer receives inconsistent or conflicting answers depending on where they interact because the underlying data is incomplete, outdated, or mis-aligned.

Garbage in → scalable garbage out.

Before AI:

Standardize data definitions
Eliminate silos
Persistent customer IDs across all interaction channels
Address and geographic area standardization (For customers living in Pennsylvania the state is standardized consistently as “PA” (vs. Penn, Penna, Pennsyl., etc.)
Ensure data completeness and integrity
Establish governance and ownership
Owned customer product and engaged services sources from the standard product and services hierarchy and catalog.

Without this:

AI doesn’t create insight, it creates noise at scale.

5. Customer Segmentation & Value-Based Treatment Models

Not all customers are the same, and they shouldn’t be treated the same. Yet most AI implementations apply a one-size-fits-all experience, regardless of customer value, risk, or lifecycle stage.

Customer Impact:
A high-value, key market influencer or at-risk customer gets the same automated experience as everyone else when what they actually need is priority handling or a human interaction.

Not all customers should experience AI the same way.

Yet most deployments treat:

High-value enterprise clients
At-risk accounts
Market influencer customers
New customers

Exactly the same.

You must define:

Segmentation (tiering, lifecycle stage, risk profile)
Differentiated engagement models
AI vs. human interaction thresholds

AI without segmentation = commoditized customer experience.

6. Intelligent Escalation & Human-in-the-Loop Design

AI should not replace humans, but rather it should know when to bring them in. The goal isn’t maximum automation. It’s making sure the right issues get the right level of attention at the right time.

Customer Impact:
The customer knows they need a human, but the system keeps forcing automation, increasing frustration and effort with every failed attempt to resolve the issue.

The goal is not maximum automation.

The goal is optimal intervention.

AI must be designed to:

Detect complexity
Identify emotional friction
Recognize high-value customers
Trigger escalation early

Without this:

You automate frustration instead of resolving it.

7. Integration with Customer Success, Training, and Adoption Systems

The most successful AI Customer Service deployments extend beyond support and connect directly to onboarding, training, customer success, and adoption systems.

Customer service is only one part of the customer journey. If AI is not connected to onboarding, training, and adoption, it’s solving surface-level issues while deeper problems go unaddressed.

Customer Impact:
The customer keeps contacting support for the same issue—not because support is failing, but because they were never properly onboarded or enabled in the first place.

This is where most organizations fail—and where the biggest opportunity exists.

AI cannot sit only in customer support.

It must connect to:

Onboarding and implementation
Training and enablement
Adoption tracking
Success planning

Because:

Customers don’t churn because support failed— they churn because they never realized value.

8. Closed-Loop Actionability (From Insight → Execution → Outcome)

Insights alone don’t create value, action does. If AI identifies problems but nothing changes as a result, you haven’t improved anything.

Customer Impact:
The customer provides feedback or signals frustration but nothing changes. The same issues continue to occur, reinforcing the belief that the company either doesn’t care and/or isn’t listening.

Most AI systems stop at insight.

That’s useless.

You need:

Trigger-based workflows (risk, expansion, adoption gaps)
Automated and human-led interventions
Feedback loops into product, training, and CX design
Measurable outcomes tied to action

If AI doesn’t change behavior, it doesn’t change results.

The biggest risk with AI isn’t immediate failure.

It’s that the damage happens gradually—and most companies don’t see it until it’s too late.

Chart 3 – The Hidden Timeline of AI-Driven Customer Churn

By the time churn shows up in your metrics, the customer made that decision long before.

What AI Customer Service Done Right Actually Looks Like

Coincidentally, I had a very different experience just yesterday, and it perfectly illustrates what AI looks like when it’s implemented correctly.

I had to call SiriusXM regarding a complex billing and contract renewal issue, the kind of situation that typically breaks most AI systems.

When the AI answered, I’ll be honest, I cringed.

Based on my recent experiences, I fully expected to get trapped in another frustrating loop.

So, I did something intentional.

I explained the entire issue in full detail—six sentences, including dates, billing discrepancies, contract terms, and my interpretation of the problem.

In other words:
Exactly the kind of complexity that usually causes AI to fail.

What happened next genuinely surprised me.

The AI responded with a complete and accurate understanding of my issue, not a partial match, not a guess, but a clear articulation of what I was trying to resolve.

Then it recommended a specific path to fix it.

At that moment, I thought:
“Okay, here’s where I get transferred to a live agent to actually make the change.”

But that didn’t happen.

Instead, the AI executed the change itself.

It updated my contract.
It corrected the billing issue.
And while I was still on the call, I received a confirmation email validating the resolution.

I literally paused and thought:

“This is how AI is supposed to work.”

I went from expecting frustration…to experiencing what can only be described as surprise and delight.

Why This Worked

Experiences like this don’t happen by accident.

They are the result of doing the foundational work outlined above:

The AI clearly understood complex, natural language input
It had access to clean, structured customer and contract data
It was integrated into backend systems capable of taking action
It operated within a well-defined decision and resolution framework based on a clearly defined set of business rules for allowable solutions.
And critically, it was empowered to complete the solution-outcome, not just deflect the interaction

The Contrast Couldn’t Be Clearer

Across more than a dozen other companies I recently contacted:

AI misunderstood intent
Forced me into predefined “closest match” categories
Could not handle edge cases or complexity
And required escalation after increasing frustration

In this case:

The AI understood
The AI resolved
The AI delivered the outcome end-to-end

That’s the Standard

This is the difference between:

AI as a cost-reduction tool vs.
AI as a customer experience and value engine

One creates frustration at scale.
The other creates loyalty at scale.

What Happens If You Skip These?

You get what most companies are experiencing today:

Lower cost per interaction ✅
Faster response times ✅
Higher deflection rates ✅

And simultaneously:

Lower retention ❌
Reduced expansion ❌
Increased customer effort ❌
Silent churn ❌

AI didn’t fail—you deployed it into an incomplete system.

The Bottom Line

The future of AI Customer Service will not be determined by how quickly organizations deploy AI. It will be determined by how effectively they combine customer intelligence, operational discipline, and customer value creation.

AI is not a customer service tool.

It is a customer intelligence and value optimization engine—if implemented correctly.

The companies that win will not be the ones that deploy AI fastest.
They will be the ones that build the right foundation before scaling it.

Final Thought

AI will not fix a broken customer experience. It will scale it.

AI didn't fail - You deployed it ontop of broken processes, incomplete customer information, non-standard and

The question is:

Are you scaling efficiency and cost reduction—or are you scaling customer value?

“If your AI is frustrating your customers, it’s not a technology problem—it’s a capability design problem.” –Steven Jeffes

The Experience Behind This Perspective

The ideas presented in this article are grounded in more than four decades of work across customer strategy, customer experience, consulting, technology, and—more recently—AI-driven customer intelligence.

Over the course of my career, I have had the opportunity to work with or consult for organizations such as Lockheed Martin, Carrier Air Conditioning, General Electric, IBM Global Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Unisys, Accenture, Cox Automotive, Wave Systems, and INEOS Automotive, as well as lead CX and CRM transformation initiatives with global brands including American Express, Intuit, Microsoft, HP, Samsung, Sony, AT&T, Verizon, Macy’s, Pfizer, Capital One, AstraZeneca, Best Buy, Vanguard, Dell, Toyota, Ritz-Carlton, Amazon, Google, General Mills, Oracle, Adobe, Southwest and Delta Airlines, Regent Cruise Lines, Siemens, Wells Fargo, and many others.

Across these engagements, I have helped organizations:

Transform customer service operations from cost centers into profitable, revenue-generating functions
Architect end-to-end customer experience and customer success operating models
Design and implement Voice of Customer systems that convert fragmented data into predictive insight
Deploy AI-enabled customer service and customer intelligence capabilities that improve both efficiency and customer outcomes
Uncover hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue opportunities through structured, customer-driven insight programs

Across every one of these initiatives, one lesson has remained remarkably consistent:

Technology alone does not create better customer outcomes.
It’s how that technology is designed, integrated, and acted upon that determines success or failure.

The organizations that get AI right are not simply automating interactions.

They are building systems that understand their customers better, act on those insights faster, and continuously improve the experience over time.

An Invitation to C-Suite Leaders

If you are a CEO, Chief Customer Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, or other senior executive looking to implement AI in a way that drives measurable customer and business outcomes—not just cost reduction—I would welcome the opportunity to connect.

I work with executive teams to:

Design AI-enabled customer experience and customer success operating models
Build and operationalize Voice of Customer and customer intelligence systems
Align customer service, training, and customer success into a unified, outcome-driven model
Identify and activate revenue growth opportunities within existing customer bases
Ensure AI implementations improve retention, expansion, and long-term customer value

The companies that will outperform in the next decade will not be those that deploy AI the fastest.

They will be the ones that implement it the smartest—grounded in customer understanding, operational discipline, and a relentless focus on outcomes.

Steven Jeffes

Customer Experience & Customer Strategy Executive
Founder, LegendaryCX

www.stevenjeffes.com
518-339-5857
stevenjeffes@gmail.com

Helping organizations turn customer intelligence into measurable growth, loyalty, and competitive advantage.

Filed under Customer Experience, Customer Profitability, customer service, customer strategy Tagged with AI adoption vs resolution, AI and customer lifetime value, AI and customer satisfaction, AI customer engagement strategy, AI customer experience best practices, AI customer experience degradation, AI customer experience design, AI customer experience failure patterns, AI customer experience framework, AI customer experience ROI, AI customer experience strategy, AI customer frustration loop, AI customer intelligence platform, AI customer journey optimization, AI customer lifecycle management, AI customer retention strategy, AI customer segmentation strategy, AI customer service implementation mistakes, AI customer service pitfalls, AI customer service vs customer experience, AI customer success strategy, AI customer support automation risks, AI escalation design, AI for Chief Customer Officer, AI strategy for CX leaders, AI ticket taxonomy customer service, AI transformation customer experience, AI VoC integration strategy, AI-driven customer churn, AI-driven revenue growth strategy, AI-driven silent churn, customer experience AI implementation guide, customer experience AI operating model, how to implement AI in customer service correctly, Steven Jeffes, Steven Jeffes Blog, Voice of Customer AI, why AI customer service fails

Customer-Driven Revenue Discovery

March 17, 2026 Leave a comment

How Customer Advisory Boards Reveal New Revenue Streams Hidden in Your Existing Customer Base

Executive Summary

Many companies search for growth through new markets, acquisitions, or product expansion. Yet some of the most valuable revenue opportunities already exist inside their current customer base.

When organizations create structured environments where customers openly discuss challenges, future needs, and industry changes, entirely new revenue opportunities often emerge quickly.

Across multiple Customer Advisory Board (CAB) programs I have designed and facilitated, these conversations have uncovered more than $500 million in previously unidentified revenue opportunities. Additional significant revenue discovery is almost guaranteed in future customer advisory boards given the approach I am about to lay in this and future CAB topic series blog articles.

1. The Untapped Revenue Inside Your Customer Base

Most organizations pursue growth through new products, new markets, or acquisitions. While these strategies can generate results, they often overlook one of the largest opportunities already available: unmet customer needs.

Over the course of facilitating Customer Advisory Boards and executive focus groups across more than fifteen organizations, structured customer discussions have repeatedly surfaced revenue opportunities that were invisible in company data.

The discovery process is illustrated in Graphic 1: The $500M+ Customer Insight Funnel.

Graphic 1 illustrates how structured customer conversations reveal operational pain points and unmet needs. These insights move through a progression—from identifying unmet demand to validating opportunity areas and ultimately developing new revenue streams. Over time, organizations that systematically capture these insights convert customer conversations into a powerful engine for innovation and growth.

2. The Revenue Discovery Gap

If the opportunity exists within the customer base, why do many organizations fail to discover it? The answer lies in what can be described as the Revenue Discovery Gap.

Most organizations rely on three sources of insight:
• Analytics data – reveals past behavior but rarely unmet needs
• Sales conversations – focused on tactical issues
• Internal innovation sessions – based on internal assumptions

These blind spots create what can be described as the Revenue Discovery Gap, illustrated in Graphic 2.

Graphic 2 highlights the difference between traditional insight sources and direct customer engagement. Analytics and internal brainstorming provide useful information but rarely uncover the deeper operational challenges customers face. Customer Advisory Boards close this gap by bringing customers directly into strategic conversations about future needs.

3. Customer Advisory Board Revenue Discovery

Customer Advisory Boards create a structured forum where organizations engage directly with thoughtful customers about industry trends, operational challenges, and future needs.

For additional research on Customer Advisory Board best practices, the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) provides useful customer engagement and customer strategy resources: https://www.cxpa.org

The strategic value created through these conversations is illustrated in Graphic 3: The CAB Value Pyramid.

Graphic 3 illustrates how CAB programs create value across three layers. The foundation is customer insight, where structured dialogue reveals unmet needs. Those insights drive innovation and revenue creation, which ultimately leads to deeper strategic partnerships where customers become collaborators in shaping future solutions.

Real Examples: Revenue Generators That Emerged From CAB Conversations

Example 1 – Automotive Concierge Ownership Service

During a Customer Advisory Board discovery session with a group of vehicle owners and fleet customers, I asked a simple question that often reveals entirely new opportunities:

“What services would you pay for — or pay more for — that we don’t currently offer?”

The room quickly began discussing the complexity of managing every aspect of vehicle ownership.

Customers described the number of tasks required throughout a vehicle’s lifecycle:

• Scheduling routine maintenance
• Coordinating service appointments
• Arranging transportation while the vehicle is being serviced
• Managing repairs and insurance claims
• Organizing detailing and upkeep
• Transporting vehicles between locations
• Dealing with unexpected breakdowns or logistical issues

One customer summarized the frustration succinctly:

“Owning the vehicle is the easy part. Managing everything around it is the real headache.”

Several CAB members then converged on the same idea: they would gladly pay a reasonable premium for a fully managed automotive concierge service that would handle every operational aspect of vehicle ownership.

The proposed service would function as a single point of coordination for the entire vehicle lifecycle, managing:

• Maintenance scheduling and service logistics
• Detailing and vehicle care
• Transportation to remote or alternate locations
• Insurance and repair coordination
• Lifecycle tracking and vehicle replacement planning

In essence, customers were asking for a “vehicle ownership management service” where they never had to think about the operational details of maintaining their vehicle.

Multiple CAB participants emphasized that the service would not only save time but also reduce stress and uncertainty associated with vehicle ownership.

Several customers indicated they would be willing to pay $1,000–$2,500 per year per vehicle for such a service if it were executed reliably.

Across a large installed customer base, a premium concierge program like this could realistically yield $50–$120 million in new service revenue while simultaneously increasing customer loyalty and retention.

The insight did not emerge from product analytics, surveys, or internal brainstorming.

It emerged from a structured conversation among customers describing the real-world friction they experience every day.

Example 2 – Veteran Affinity Credit Card

In another Customer Advisory Board discovery session involving credit card customers, participants were discussing the emotional connection consumers increasingly want to feel with the brands they support.

Several CAB members raised the idea of financial products tied to causes that customers deeply care about.

One participant suggested an idea that quickly gained traction among the group:

A credit card specifically designed to support U.S. veterans.

Customers explained that many Americans actively look for ways to support veterans and veteran-focused organizations but often lack simple, everyday mechanisms to do so.

The CAB participants proposed a credit card that would direct a portion of card proceeds — such as transaction fees or annual membership fees — to vetted veteran support organizations.

The idea resonated strongly across the group for several reasons.

First, it allowed cardholders to support veterans through everyday spending rather than requiring separate charitable contributions.

Second, it provided a simple way for consumers to align their financial behavior with causes they care about.

Several CAB members indicated they would gladly pay a premium annual fee for such a card, viewing the additional cost as a meaningful way to contribute to veteran causes.

Participants also pointed out that no major financial institution had yet created a credit card explicitly structured around supporting veterans in this way.

Strategic Product Design

The financial institution ultimately designed a new credit card that maximized the benefits available under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) and the Military Lending Act (MLA).

The product incorporated benefits such as waived annual fees, enhanced rewards programs, charitable contributions to veteran organizations, and other military-focused features that made the card uniquely attractive to veterans, active-duty service members, and the millions of Americans who support them.

By aligning the product design with existing military consumer protection frameworks, the institution was able to create a differentiated financial product while maintaining full regulatory compliance.

This meant the concept could serve not only as a new product offering but also as a powerful market differentiator capable of attracting an entirely new audience of customers motivated by purpose-driven financial products.

CAB participants suggested that the product could appeal not only to veterans and military families but also to the millions of Americans who actively support veteran-focused initiatives.

With the right positioning and partnerships with credible veteran organizations, such a product could realistically yield $30–$75 million in new annual revenue through a combination of annual fees, transaction volume, and expanded card adoption.

More importantly, it would position the issuing financial institution as a brand aligned with a cause that resonates deeply with many consumers.

Once again, the idea did not originate inside the company.

The idea and new revenue stream came directly from customers when they were invited to participate in shaping the future of the products they use.

Example 3 – Predictive Maintenance & Failure Prevention Services

During a Customer Advisory Board discussion involving enterprise equipment operators and fleet managers, participants began describing a common operational frustration: unexpected equipment failures that created costly downtime and disrupted operations.

Several CAB members explained that while existing products performed well, they lacked advanced tools that could predict failures before they occurred.

Customers suggested that if the company could combine equipment telemetry, operational data, and predictive analytics into a monitoring service, they would gladly pay a subscription fee for predictive maintenance insights that would help them prevent downtime.

The proposed solution included:

• Continuous monitoring of equipment performance data
• Predictive alerts for potential failures
• Maintenance scheduling recommendations
• Performance optimization insights across fleets or facilities

Customers emphasized that avoiding even a single major failure could save tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in operational disruption.

Because of that, they viewed the service not as a cost, but as an operational insurance policy.

Several CAB members indicated they would be willing to pay $500–$2,000 per asset annually for such a service.

When applied across large installed equipment bases, this type of predictive maintenance platform could yield $40–$80 million in annual recurring revenue while simultaneously improving customer uptime and satisfaction.

In many industries, the shift from reactive support to predictive service has become one of the fastest-growing sources of new service revenue.

Example 4 – Industry Benchmarking & Performance Intelligence Platform

In another Customer Advisory Board session involving senior leaders from multiple organizations within the same industry, participants began discussing a challenge many of them shared.

While each company collected extensive internal performance data, they had very little visibility into how their operations compared to industry peers.

CAB participants expressed strong interest in an industry benchmarking and performance intelligence platform that could provide anonymized insights across participating organizations.

The concept included:

• Aggregated industry performance benchmarks
• Operational efficiency comparisons
• Market trend insights across participating companies
• Predictive analytics identifying emerging competitive risks

Customers explained that access to credible benchmarking data would help them make better strategic decisions, justify internal investments, and identify performance gaps earlier.

Several participants suggested they would gladly pay for such insight if it were provided by a trusted industry partner.

CAB members proposed a subscription-based benchmarking service available to participating organizations.

Early estimates from CAB participants suggested companies would pay between $50,000 and $150,000 annually for access to credible industry benchmarking intelligence.

If adopted across even a modest number of customers within the ecosystem, such a platform could yield $25–$60 million in recurring annual revenue, while positioning the provider as a trusted strategic intelligence partner within the industry.

In addition to the direct revenue opportunity, these types of platforms often strengthen customer relationships because they provide ongoing strategic insight rather than simply operational support.

4. Customer Advisory Board Revenue Discovery Framework

Organizations that consistently uncover meaningful revenue opportunities through CAB programs typically follow a structured process.

Step 1 – Identify the Right Customers
Step 2 – Curate the Advisory Board
Step 3 – Design the Discussion
Step 4 – Facilitate Discovery

Step 4 – Facilitate Discovery (deeper dive, sample content of next blog topic on CABs)

Even with the right participants and discussion topics, the role of facilitation remains critical. The quality of insights generated during a Customer Advisory Board (CAB) session depends heavily on whether participants feel comfortable sharing candid perspectives—even when that feedback may challenge existing products, services, or strategies.

To create an environment where honest dialogue can occur, I begin every CAB session by establishing a simple set of ground rules designed to encourage openness, respect, and constructive debate.

CAB Ground Rules for Productive Discovery

Ground Rule #1 – Radical Honesty Is Expected
All ideas and comments are welcome, no matter how negative they may be. If we are going to improve, we need complete honesty. I often remind participants of an old saying: only your best and most trusted friend would tell you that you have a dirty face or bad breath. The same principle applies here—honest feedback is a sign of trust.

Ground Rule #2 – Candor Will Never Be Penalized
No feedback, regardless of its severity, will ever cause leadership to view participants negatively. On the contrary, those who share completely honest perspectives will be valued as trusted advisors to the brand.

Ground Rule #3 – Challenge Assumptions
Participants are encouraged to speak openly and challenge assumptions. Many of the most valuable insights emerge when customers question ideas that organizations have long taken for granted.

Ground Rule #4 – Respect Every Voice
Only one person speaks at a time, and all participants must respect each other’s viewpoints and perspectives. Productive CAB sessions depend on thoughtful listening as much as thoughtful speaking.

Ground Rule #5 – Think Like Owners
As with brainstorming, no suggestion or criticism is off-limits. Every idea will be treated with respect and serious consideration. During the session, participants are not simply customers, they are co-CEOs helping shape the future of the company.

Segueing from this final ground rule, I then introduce an exercise designed to shift the mindset of the room even further.

Graphic 3A – Example CAB Session, company Ownership Certificate

Graphic 3A – Participant Certification of Company Ownership.

To shift the conversation from customer feedback to strategic thinking, each participant receives a Certificate of Ownership above that symbolically appoints them as the temporary owner and CEO of the company for the duration of the CAB session.

After distributing the certificates, I explain:

For new customer led problem identification and rectification focused sessions, the question becomes“For the next few hours, you are the owners of this company. You can change anything you want—products, services, pricing, policies, strategy, or how we operate.”

For customer led new revenue focused sessions, the question becomes “For the next few hours, you are the owners of this company. You need to focus on new revenue generation ideas that would sell easily – new products, services, premium services, events, partnerships, etc.”

Participants are then asked a simple but powerful question:

“If you owned this company, what changes would you make on day one, week one, and month one?”

This exercise immediately moves participants from the mindset of customers providing feedback to owners responsible for improving the business. The result is more candid conversations, more strategic thinking, and insights that rarely surface in traditional customer meetings.

A deeper look at the full methodology behind designing and facilitating high-impact CAB sessions, including facilitation techniques, session structures, and insight extraction frameworks will be covered in the next article in this series:

“Designing & Facilitating World-Class Customer Advisory Boards.”

Step 5 – Convert Insights Into Revenue

This process is illustrated in Graphic 4: The Revenue Discovery Framework.

Graphic 4 above shows how organizations move from customer insight to measurable revenue creation. Each stage builds upon the previous one, transforming structured customer conversations into a repeatable pipeline for innovation and growth.

5. Strategic Benefits of a Customer Advisory Board Beyond Revenue

While CAB programs are powerful engines for uncovering new revenue, their impact extends far beyond innovation alone. They strengthen customer relationships and can serve as an early warning system for emerging risks.

This dynamic is illustrated in Graphic 5: The Loyalty Multiplier Effect.

Graphic 5 shows how including customers in strategic conversations creates a reinforcing cycle of engagement, advocacy, and loyalty. When customers help shape solutions, they often become advocates for the brand and long‑term partners in its success.

6. Types of Revenue Opportunities a Customer Advisory Board Reveal

Revenue opportunities uncovered through CAB discussions typically fall into four categories:

• New services
• Premium offerings
• Product enhancements
• Entirely new offerings These categories are illustrated in Graphic 6: The Revenue Opportunity Spectrum.

Graphic 6 – The Revenue Opportunity Spectrum

Graphic 6 demonstrates how CAB insights often begin with incremental opportunities such as services or premium offerings and can expand into entirely new products or businesses.

7. Why Customer Advisory Board Insights Beats Internal Brainstorming

Internal brainstorming generates ideas, but it often lacks market validation. Customer Advisory Boards introduce perspectives internal teams cannot replicate.

The difference between internal ideas and customer‑validated insight is shown in Graphic 7.

Graphic 7 highlights how internal brainstorming often produces ideas based on assumptions, while customer‑driven innovation begins with real operational problems and validated demand.

8. The Strategic Imperative

Many successful growth strategies begin in the same place: a room full of customers sharing honest perspectives about their challenges and future needs.

The overall strategic impact of customer‑driven discovery is summarized in Graphic 8, Strategic Impact of Customer‑Driven Discovery.

Graphic 8 reinforces the central idea of this article: when organizations systematically involve customers in shaping their future, they unlock new revenue streams, stronger loyalty, and long‑term strategic partnerships.

“Every company has untapped revenue hiding inside its customer base.
The companies that discover it first are the ones willing to ask their customers the right questions.”

9. The Experience Behind This Perspective

The ideas presented here are grounded in more than four decades of work in customer strategy, customer experience, consulting, and technology leadership.

I have worked with or consulted for organizations including Lockheed‑Martin, Carrier, General Electric, IBM Global Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Unisys, Accenture, Cox Automotive, Wave Systems, INEOS Automotive, American Express, Microsoft, Samsung, AT&T, Verizon, Pfizer, Capital One, Toyota, Amazon, Google, Oracle, Adobe, Southwest Airlines, Delta Airlines, Siemens, Wells Fargo and many others.

10. An Invitation to C‑Suite Leaders

If you are a CEO, Chief Customer Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, or senior executive seeking to uncover new growth opportunities while strengthening customer relationships, I would welcome the opportunity to speak with you.

Steven Jeffes
Customer Experience & Customer Strategy Executive
Founder, LegendaryCX
http://www.stevenjeffes.com | 518‑339‑5857 | stevenjeffes@gmail.com

11. What Comes Next

Customer Advisory Boards are one of the most powerful, and most underutilized, strategic tools available to executive leadership teams.

When designed and facilitated correctly, CAB programs do far more than generate feedback. They uncover entirely new revenue streams, reveal emerging market risks before they become crises, and transform customers into strategic partners in shaping a company’s future.

Over the past four decades working with global enterprises across industries—including financial services, automotive, technology, healthcare, and manufacturing—I have helped organizations design and lead Customer Advisory Boards that have revealed hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue opportunities while simultaneously strengthening long-term customer loyalty and advocacy.

In the next three articles in this series, I will go deeper into the mechanics behind these outcomes, including:

How to Design and Run World-Class Customer Advisory Boards that consistently produce strategic insight and breakthrough ideas.
How Leading Companies Convert Customer Insight Into Revenue, transforming CAB conversations into new services, premium offerings, and entirely new business models.
The Hidden Strategic Value of Customer Advisory Boards, including how trusted CAB members can serve as early-warning systems for emerging operational, regulatory, and market risks.

Because when companies move customers from the sidelines into the strategy room, they don’t just learn more about their markets.

They start discovering opportunities their competitors haven’t even seen yet.

Filed under Corporate Innovation, Customer Experience, Customer Profitability, customer strategy, Sales Techniques & Strategies, Uncategorized Tagged with ai, business, Customer Advisory Board best practices, Customer advisory board case studies, Customer advisory board examples, Customer Advisory Board strategy, customer advisory boards, customer advisory council, Customer Advisory Intelligence, Customer discovery process, Customer experience innovation, Customer Insight Monetization, Customer partnership strategy, Customer-centric growth strategy, Customer-Driven Market Validation, Customer-Driven Revenue Discovery, Customer-driven strategy, Customer-led innovation, CX strategy leadership, digital marketing, Executive Customer Advisory Board, Executive Customer Insights Engine, How customer advisory boards create revenue, innovation strategy, Innovation via CABs, Marketing, New revenue streams, Operational Insight Catalyst, Partnered Innovation Framework, Product innovation with customers, Revenue Discovery Framework, Revenue growth strategy, Strategic Customer Collaboration, Strategic Customer Insight, Strategic customer relationships, technology, Voice of the Customer strategy, Voice-of-Customer Revenue Discovery

Introducing: The Customer Bill of Rights

March 3, 2022 1 Comment

Customer Bill of Rights (CBOR) Topics Covered in this blog article:
A) The brand promise
B) Customer bill of rights definition
C) Why the customer bill of rights is needed and important
D) Company mantra, tagline, and brand promise examples
E) The hierarchy of company mantra, tagline, brand promise and customer bill of rights
F) Customer bill of rights company examples
G) Internal service organization customer bill of rights treatment standards
H) How to get started creating your own customer bill of rights

1. The Familiar Brand Promise:

We have all heard of a brand promise and have an idea of what this is all about. Simply put, a brand promise is the definition of the high-level quality of experience a company’s customers can expect to receive during every interaction with the company and its customer facing employees. The brand promise speaks to the brand’s purpose and speaks to the value that the brand will deliver.

2. CBOR Definition and Benefits:

The downside of a brand promise is that it is short of specifics on what the customer can expect during their interactions with the company. To bridge the gap between the higher-level brand promise and to explain what the customers can specifically experience when interacting with the company, we introduce the relatively new customer bill of rights. Here is a simple definition of what a customer bill of rights is:

A Customer Bill of Rights (CBOR) is a public statement designed to communicate to customers what specific service level standards and guarantees the company is going to provide to them.

Related reading: The CXPA (Customer Experience Professionals Association) provides additional guidance and best practices for customer-centric service design: https://www.cxpa.org

3. Hierarchy: Company Mantra, Tagline, Brand Promise and Customer Bill of Rights:

To first explain how a brand promise ties into the customer bill of rights I thought it important to review the hierarchy of company-customer experience value statements starting with the Company Mantra at the highest level. Simply put, a company mantra states what the company stands for and why they exist. Here are some examples of company mantras that demonstrates their why. For additional context on this concept, Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why” framework is a helpful reference: https://simonsinek.com/books/start-with-why/

A) Company Mantra Examples:
Disney: “Fun, Family Entertainment.”
Nike: “Authentic Athletic Performance.”
McDonald’s: “Fun, Family, Food.”
Next down in the hierarchy of company-customer experience statements comes the company tagline that supports the company mantra. A tagline is a very short and memorable phrase used to convey the value of a brand experience or its products. Here are some examples of the same set of companies and their taglines that demonstrates their why:

B) Company Tagline Examples:
Disney: “The most magical place on Earth.”
Nike: “Just do It.”
McDonald’s: “I’m lovin’ it.”
Next down in the hierarchy of company-customer experience statements is the brand promise, that at a high level, clearly and concisely states the quality of experience a company’s customers can expect to receive during every interaction with the company and its customer facing employees.

C) Company Brand Promise Examples:
Disney: “to create happiness through magical experiences.”
Nike: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”
McDonald’s: “make delicious feel-good moments easy for everyone.”

While the company mantra, the tagline and the brand promise all support alignment to the company/brand and its values, it does little to speak to the customer on what specifically they can expect while interacting with the company and its customer facing employees. Hence, last, in the hierarchy of company-customer experience statements we introduce a relatively new tool called the customer bill of rights that explicitly states the specifics the customer can expect when interacting with the company and its customer facing functions and employees.

Hierarchy of Customer Experience Statements: Company Mantra – Tagline – Brand Promise – Customer Bill of Rights

Since it is relatively new to the customer experience world, we are going to break from the 3 previous companies we illustrated (Disney, Nike, McDonalds) and instead highlight some innovative companies who have been bold enough to create and display their customer bill of rights.

4. Customer Bill of Rights Examples:

Here are some great small business examples that illustrate exactly what a customer bill of rights is all about:

A) Herb’s Auto:

Herb’s Auto Customer Bill of Rights

Source: https://herbsauto.biz/specials/details/herbs-auto-customer-bill-of-rights

Herb’s is a great example in that it combines their goals from a customer experience standpoint Delivering “fast, Courteous Service” along with specifics on what a customer is to expect “Lifetime Oil, Filter, Lube $12.99*”.

B) Here is another great example from Eden Prairie Painting Company:

Eden Prairie Painting Company Customer Bill of Rights

Source: https://edenprairiepaintingcompany.com/about/customer-bill-rights/

I absolutely love this example as it combines a mantra/tagline along with attractive and high quality visuals of what customer can expect as well as some service level agreements and standards (e.g., “we will begin painting within 3 weeks”, “no less than 4 years experience before working in the field for our customers”) as well as a contact number clearly visible for customers to contact them (i.e. clear call to action). .

C) Here is a 3rd example from C&R Tire:

C&R Tire Customer Bill of Rights

Source: https://www.candrtire.com/About/Customer-Bill-of-Rights

The C&R tire resonates with me personally due to the last item above. How many times have you gone into a tire or auto service establishment’s dirty/dingy waiting room waiting for service and feel like you are in the actual service bay with all the grease, oil, and grime. Some auto establishment’s waiting rooms are truly cringe worthy. That last item on their customer bill of rights is the masterful capitalization on other competitor’s weakness and making it differentiator for your own business by putting directly into in a customer bill of rights!

D) Next up, we have this small business example from a service organization, Chautauqua Opportunities:

Chautauqua Opportunities Customer Bill of Rights

Source: https://www.chautauquaopportunities.com/customer-bill-of-rights/

“Chautauqua Opportunities is an organization established under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 to fight America’s war on poverty.” This community service organization tailors their bill of rights around service standards that are appropriate for the constituencies they serve. I particularly like their statements on the delivery of their service in a way that is “non-discriminatory” and “without bias” and safeguards their constituency’s privacy, etc. which is highly applicable to their constituents.

E) Next up, we have this small business example from Capital Homes, Inc.:

Capital Homes, Inc. Customer Bill of Rights

Source: https://capitolhomeideas.com/customer-bill-rights/

F) Leading the charge for larger businesses, we have the excellent example from Jet Blue:

Jet Blue Customer Bill of Rights

Source: https://www.jetblue.com/magnoliapublic/dam/ui-assets/p/Bill_Of_Rights.pdf

Having consulted and worked for numerous Fortune 500 companies, this bill of rights from Jet Blue is absolutely my favorite. This combines the commitment on informing customers and under what circumstances, details different customer impacting events and what customers can expect for the occurrence of each event type, but most importantly details the exact specifics the customer can expect for each customer disrupting event. Behind the scenes, I can safely predict that their revenue/finance department pre-calculated the cost of the specific customer considerations (vouchers) by multiplying the cost of each consideration by the historical incident rates and customer volumes for each type of event (departure delays, cancellations, etc.). In essence, it is solidifying a predictable revenue model while communicating this to their customer base to gain competitive advantage which is brilliant.

G) My Examples:

Here are some sanitized (removed client identifiable information) examples from companies I have recently worked for:

Client Customer Bills of Rights – Company Commitment

H) Customer Service Organization (internal) Example:

At a customer service representative level, I have created the following in terms of what type of specific customer treatment we will uphold and what the customer can expect from each and every one of our customer facing people and functions:

Our Customer Service & Experience Experts Make the Following Promises to Our Customers

Customer Service Customer Treatment Bill of Rights

5. How to Create a CBOR

Does your company (large or small) have a CBOR? This is not in a company mantra, tagline, or brand promise, but rather a simple set of rules, standards and guidelines that details the specifics of your customer service and customer experience delivery and helps set specific customer <–> customer-service expectations.

Start by discussing this possibility with your upper management and with your customer support organization. Challenge your organization to create 5-10 customer service expectations that your customers can specifically expect from your company and team. Then make sure that every employee knows and understands it is their obligation to deliver on those expectations. Key to this is aligning your internal standards, process, employee incentives and technology infrastructure to support the pledge, training your frontline employees, and recognizing customer service employee stars who are exceptional in upholding your customer service standards and pledges to your customer.

6. Customer Bill of Rights Summary

We have all heard of and mostly understand customer experience terms like the company mantra, tagline, and brand promise. These terms while effective in communicating the values of the company and the brand(s), these fail to communicate what the customer is to specifically expect when interacting with the company and their frontline employees for various customer needs. To address this gap in helping customers understand what specifics the company will deliver from a customer service perspective the increasing use of the customer bill of rights has been introduced by a growing number of companies. The many examples of a customer bill of rights presented in this article will give you food for thought in terms of what your own might look like. It is easy to get started to create your own and can start as simple as with a conversation with your customer facing team and upper management. If you do create a customer bill of rights, you must ensure all capabilities are in place to deliver on these customer promises, otherwise it will be judged as just a company marketing gimmick that nobody believes and you risk losing a great deal of marketplace credibility and customer faith.

7) Need help in creating your own CBOR?

If your organization is seeking a proven resource in measuring and improving your customer service and experience via a customer bill of rights, then give me a call or e-mail me at 518-339-5857 or stevenjeffes@gmail.com.

Lastly, this is just one article nearly 60 articles I have written on customer strategy, customer experience, CRM, marketing, product management, competitive intelligence, corporate innovation, change management – all of which I have significant experience in delivering for Fortune 500 companies. In fact, my blog is now followed by nearly 106,000 world-wide and was just named one of the top 100 CRM blogs on the planet by Feedspot, alongside Salesforce.com, Infor, Microsoft, SAS, etc. – Reference this informative site here: https://blog.feedspot.com/crm_blogs/.

Improving Customer Service and Customer Experience Through Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

December 2, 2021 4 Comments

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Example — **Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Illustration**

A. What is RPA, a simple definition.
B. The customer experience and business benefits of RPA.
C. RPA market growth/trends.
D. RPA Use Cases & Examples of how RPA Enables Better Customer Service & Experience.
E. Top Companies embracing the use of RPA.
F. Top RPA Solution Platforms.
G. Top RPA System Integrators, Service Providers.
H. How to get started in leveraging RPA.
I. RPA Best Practices
J. RPA, 911 & where to get immediate RPA assistance and additional insights.

A) What is Robotic Process Automation, a simple definition:

Robotic process automation (RPA) is the automation of relatively basic, repetitive, and traditionally lower value business functions and tasks.

RPA automation is achieved through software or hardware systems that deliver several functions and processes that human resources would traditionally accomplish.

B) The customer experience and business benefits of Robotic Process Automation

RPA allows companies to offload an array of manual and repetitive tasks so that company team members can be freed up to focus more exclusively on important higher value-added functions including improving customer service and experience. Tasks that are automated include both front-office and back-office tasks and range in function from sales to finance to HR to customer service. Verticals that are more heavily invested in RPA currently include retail, telecommunications, and financial services. There are numerous use cases for RPA and I cover samples of these use cases more in depth in section E of this article. The chart below is a great summary of both the customer experience and business benefits of RPA.

RPA Customer & Business Benefits — **Customer Experience and Business Benefits of Robotic Process Automation (RPA)**

C) Robotic Process AutomationMarket Growth/Trends:

• Gartner Says “Worldwide Robotic Process Automation Software Revenue to Reach Nearly $2 Billion in 2021“

• Garner also states that the “RPA Market Forecast to Grow at Double-Digit Rates Through 2024 Despite Economic Pressures from COVID-19”

Table 1. Worldwide RPA Software Revenue (Millions of U.S. Dollars)

RPA Proected Growth — **Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Market Growth**, **Source: Gartner (September 2020)**

• The pandemic and ensuing recession increased interest in RPA for many enterprises. Gartner predicts that 90% of large organizations globally will have adopted RPA in some form by 2022 as they look to digitally empower critical business processes through resilience and scalability, while recalibrating human labor and manual effort.

Source: https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-09-21-gartner-says-worldwide-robotic-process-automation-software-revenue-to-reach-nearly-2-billion-in-2021

• According to the Research and Markets Report 2020, the Global Robotic Process Automation Market is expected to grow to $7.2 billion by 2025 at 32.6% CAGR.

Source: https://www.cmcglobal.com.vn/next-gen-technologies/top-rpa-technology-solution-providers/

D) Robotic Process Automation Use Cases & Examples of how RPA Enables Better Customer Service & Experience

1) RPA Use Case 1: Customer and Employee Onboarding:

RPA in Customer Onboarding — **Customer and Employee Onboarding RPA**

The common tasks associated with employee and customer onboarding are very standard, structured, and repeatable. Therefore, these standard and repeatable tasks are perfect candidates for RPA. For example, RPA can handle the following customer and employee tasks:

a) Customers: RPA can be leveraged to establish customer profiles (e.g., segment, purchased products/services, payment and invoice financial accounts, credit worthiness checks and authorizations, etc.) and needed onboarding services (onboarding training, welcome kit delivery, initial sales account visits, etc.). Many of these customer onboarding processes are very standard with very few permutations and therefore are very likely candidates for the application of RPA.

b) Employees: RPA can be used to take employee and customer identifying information and update multiple information systems (payroll, emergency contacts, state employment and tax compliance, timesheet systems, training systems, security/access management, etc.). This behind-the-scenes RPA updating can save hours of valuable company resource time.

2) RPA Use Case 2: Customer Invoice and Payment Processing Automation:

RPA in invoice & payment processing — **Customer Invoice and Payments RPA**

Customer invoicing and payment processing is a highly standardized and repeatable process. Take for instance the case of paying on an auto lease or financed purchase. The customer invoice and payment amounts are generally the same every month, usually at the same time of the month unless changed by request and, the calculation of the amount paid and remaining amount left to pay, a simple math exercise. The same is true for many other regular invoice and payment cycles: utilities, insurance, health plans, etc. These are all candidates for RPA whereby the robotic processing can automate the delivery of the standard customer process and experience delivery (vs. specialized 1-to-1 delivery). Some sophisticated rules-based RPA tools even allow for several complex permutations in the process invoice/billing amounts, timing, periodicity, etc.

3) RPA Use Case 3: Automation of Customer Calls:

RPA in call centers — **Customer Call Center RPA**

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the acceptance of online self-service by customers, and they expect simple point and click solutions for inquiries, ordering, payments, providing feedback, pointing out issues and problems, etc. In short, they expect one and done customer service. Multi-channel customer interaction center (legacy term was call center) customer representatives have SLAs to meet in terms of time on call metrics (average time spent on each customer contact).

Much of the work of customer contact agents is standard and includes commonly performed tasks across all customer contacts. These common and repeatable tasks lend themselves perfectly to RPA to enable the contact agents to work on tasks that are higher value to the customer. Here are examples of customer contact center tasks that are likely candidates for RPA:
A) Data entry or update tasks
B) Generating customer acknowledgement or thank you notes
C) Completing a call after relevant customer information has been collected.
D) Populating customer order forms and invoices

There are many virtual attendant RPA solutions that make the job of the customer contact center agent easier while simultaneously enhancing the customer experience.

4) RPA Use Case 4: Customer Banking Automation:

Robotic Process Automation in banking — **Customer Banking RPA**

Just like applying RPA to common and simple tasks for invoicing/payments and customer interaction centers, banking has numerous common tasks that are easily adaptable to RPA and IoT (reference my other blog article on IoT here: https://bit.ly/3DwQz2i ).

The common, routine, and repeatable banking tasks applicable for RPA include the following:
1) Opening and closing bank account.
2) Processing deposits.
3) Processing withdrawals.
4) Processing welcoming messages for new customers, customer buying new products.
5) Processing account updates or simple inquiries.
6) Processing account addendums (i.e., adding checking to savings).

5) RPA Use Case 5: Customer Order Management Automation:

Robotic Process Automation in order management — **Order Management RPA**

How many times have you ordered items on the internet from online retailers and found the process very routine and repeatable? Well guess what? If you guessed this is a perfect process adaptable to RPA, then you are getting the concept. From a company’s perspective, the processing of orders manually is both time and cost intensive while not really adding much to the customer experience. Today, people want simple, fast, point and click instant self-service without having to rely on a human to get what they need. The common, routine, and repeatable order management tasks that are candidates for RPA include the following:
1) Processing orders.
2) Scheduling fulfillment and shipping.
3) Sending order status messages to customers (e.g., ordered, shipped, delayed, etc.),
4) Handling payments.
5) Processing returns and refunds.
6) Processing defect and warranty claims.

E) Top Companies Embracing the Use of Robotic Process Automation:

Here is a sampling of 20 of the more popular non-RPA service providers or consulting companies who are embracing the use of RPA:
1) Whirlpool
2) Siemens
3) Quest Diagnostics
4) LinkedIn
5) Linium (Now Cognizant (staffing))
6) Intel
7) Hewlett Packard Enterprise
8) Hess
9) General Motors
10) Dell
11) Comcast
12) Boston Scientific
13) AT&T
14) Adobe
15) Xerox
16) Vodafone
17) Ambit Energy
18) Avande
19) Zodiac Aerospace (now Safran Group)
20) Latam Airlines
Source: https://www.askeygeek.com/companies-using-robotic-process-automation/

F) Top Robotic Process Automation Solution Platforms:

Search the internet and you’ll find a great deal of rankings for the top RPA solution platform providers. Below is just one ranking of many that lists the top 10 vendors from a very well done article that lists the top 5 RPA service providers as UiPath, Automation Anywhere, Microsoft, EdgeVerve and Blue Prism (Softomotive removed since it was purchased by Microsoft, listed in #3 below, in 2020):

UiPath (Gartner “Leaders” Magic Quadrant)
Automation Anywhere (Gartner “Leaders” Magic Quadrant)
Microsoft Power Automate (Gartner “Leaders” Magic Quadrant)
EdgeVerve
Blue Prism (Gartner “Leaders” Magic Quadrant)
WorkFusion
Kofax
NICE
Another Monday (Purchased by Hyland in 2020)
Pegasystems
Source: https://www.datamation.com/artificial-intelligence/top-15-robotic-process-automation-rpa-companies/

G) Top RPA Service and Consulting Companies:

Beyond the top RPA solution platform providers article listed in the previous section, there are very few articles that focus on the RPA service providers that help a company implement RPA. Below are the findings from a very well done analysis that puts the top 5 RPA service providers as EY, Capgemini, KPMG, TCS and Accenture. Below is the list of the entire ranked top 10 RPA service providers from this analysis:

Top 10 Ranking:
1) Ernst & Young
2) Capgemini
3) KPMG
4) Tata Consulting Services (TCS)
5) Accenture
6) IBM
7) Deloitte
8) Symphony Ventures (Now Sykes)
9) Cognizant
10) Infosys

Tata Consulting Services (TCS) is bolded above since I feel they are at the very top of services firms who can help other companies implement RPA.

Tata Consulting Services (TCS)

Source: https://www.horsesforsources.com/TOP-TEN-RPA-SERVICES-2018_120218

H) RPA Best Practices & How to get started in leveraging RPA:

Below is a simple step-by-step process I developed to help you get started in implementing RPA (vs. optimizing which is a separate list):

Focus on tasks that are easy to implement, yet deliver high value impact
Develop a list of tasks that are likely candidates for the application of RPA per the information provided above – simple/common tasks, repeatable tasks, few permutations to a task, etc. For each potential task listed create two additional columns as follows:
A) Value to the organization and customers for task automation
B) Ease of implementation
Those chosen to move forward should be those easy to implement that create the highest value. I call these tasks the RPA “low hanging fruit” that are no brainers for automation.
Start with small RPA pilots to demonstrate the proof of value
Next find a way to limit the scope of the initial RPA pilot to include only exposing a limited (segment) of customers, choosing a task that is infrequently exercised (which still providing high value), or limit the time for testing the task automation (2-5 days, 1 week, etc.). Once the limited pilot is completed, document the results and value delivered from the pilot to build excitement and justification for full roll-out while make RPA adjustments based on lessons learned from pilot execution before going to full rollout.
Measure, measure, measure – improve, improve, improve
Similar to measuring the results from the pilot and refining the RPA components to further optimize the value derived from automating a RPA pilot, a continuous measurement & improvement process cycle should govern all RPA pilots, implementations, rollouts, etc.
Focus on the simultaneous optimization of the internal organization and customer relationships
A value delivery matrix should be developed that balances how to optimize the existing organization and labor costs such that resources are focused on delivering simultaneously the highest customer value and customer experience vs. focusing on routine and low value tasks.
Obtain the advice and help of RPA consultants, professionals
Just like the saying “don’t try this at home”, I don’t recommend tackling RPA initially without the help of a professional services/consulting firm that has a great deal of experience implementing RPA that closely resembles what you are seeking to accomplish. Refer to section G above for a great list of highly qualified RPA experts and services companies.

I) RPA Summary:

1) RPA is the automation of repeatable, common, and typically lower value tasks to free up company resources to focus on higher value and strategic tasks like delivering improved customer experience and customer service.
2) The benefits of RPA are numerous, but RPA decreases company operating costs by reducing labor and labor costs while enabling better levels of customer intimacy, customer service and customer experience.
3) RPA, while not growing as fast as the complimentary IoT market, is very rapidly growing after taking a short growth respite in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
4) There are many examples of RPA use cases that enhance customer service and experience and include invoice and payment processing, consumer banking, employee and customer onboarding, contact and call center automation, and order management .
5) The top 10 platform vendors include UiPath, Automation Anywhere, EdgeVerve, Blue Prism, Softomotive, WorkFusion, Kofax, NICE, Another Monday, and Pegasystems.
6) The top 10 RPA service and consulting companies include Ernst & Young, Capgemini, KPMG, Tata Consulting Services (TCS), Accenture, IMB, Deloitte, Symphony Ventures, Cognizant, and Infosys.
7) RPA quick start best practices include starting with tasks that deliver high value that are easy to implement, start with limited pilots to build excitement and prove the value of RPA, measure the results to continually improve, focus on the simultaneous optimization of the company organization and customer relationships, and hiring the support of RPA service firms and consultants to aid your RPA planning and deployment.

J) Robotic Process Automation 911 & where to get immediate RPA assistance and additional insights:

If you are seeking some quick advice on RPA, I can help point you in the right direction, provide some summary advice and am more than willing to help others beginning on this journey.

If your organization is seeking experienced assistance in lowering your overall cost to serve and increasing CSAT with automated and RPA, AI and/or IoT powered customer service, then give me a call or e-mail me at 518-339-5857 or stevenjeffes@gmail.com.

Lastly, this is just one article of over 55+ articles I have written on customer strategy, customer experience, CRM, sales excellence, marketing, product management, competitive intelligence, corporate innovation, change management – all of which I have significant experience in delivering for numerous Fortune 500 companies. In fact, my blog is now followed by nearly 105,000 world-wide and was just named one of the top 100 CRM blogs on the planet by Feedspot, alongside Salesforce.com, Infor, Microsoft, SAS, etc. – Reference this informative site here: https://blog.feedspot.com/crm_blogs/.

The IoT Revolution: Improving customer convenience & customer experience while reducing business cycle times and cost.

October 14, 2021 1 Comment

IOT Revolution Topics covered in this blog:

Learn all you need to know about the IOT revolution via the following covered topics.
1) The simple definitions for the Internet of Things (IoT) and Telematics
2) Illustration of IoT personal and business devices, uses
3) IoT Trends
4) IoT Growth in Spend and Market Size
5) IoT enablers and why IoT has become so pervasive
6) How does IoT work
7) The benefits of IoT
8) The positives and negatives of IoT
9) The most Popular IoT Architecture Platforms in 2021
10) The 10 Hottest Industrial IoT Platforms Of 2020
11) The most Popular IoT Services Companies for 2021
12) Sample IoT Use Cases that illustrate the Customer Experience Benefits
• Customer, Personal IoT Digital Assistants Use Case Benefits
• Business, Fleet Management IoT Benefits Use Case:
• IoT Dashboard Example with Customer Experience Benefits:
13) How to get started in improving your IoT driven Customer Experience

A) Simple Definitions of IoT and Telematics:

For additional information on the Internet of Things (IoT), visit the IBM IoT resource center:https://www.ibm.com/topics/internet-of-things

One new term I keep hearing about over and over is the “Internet of Things”, known shorthand as IoT. I thought this was a strange term at first and was puzzled about what it stood for. As a result, I set forth to research the topic and create a simple definition for IoT as well as “Telematics” which is frequently mentioned in the context of IoT.

1) IoT Definition: IoT is short for the Internet of Things and describes physically connected objects, that contain embedded sensors, processors, software, and other technologies, and that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the internet or by other communications networks.

2) Telematics Definition: Telematics is the practice of sending, receiving, and storing information using telecommunication devices to control remote IoT objects.
In other words, and more put more simply, Telematics is the practice of managing information collected from an array of IoT devices (i.e., connected thermostats, GPS in an automobile, Alexa, Siri, etc.). For the rest of this article, IoT and supporting Telematics I will simply refer to as IoT.

IoT Revolution consumer and business applications — **Consumer & Business IoT**

{click on image to expand}

B) IOT Trends and why IoT has become so significant:

With 1.3 billion projected subscriptions by 2023, IoT is about to experience another boost by the 5G technology.
By 2021, 35 billion IoT devices will be installed around the world.
The number of connected devices in 2021 will be 46 billion. (Juniper Research)
Households have ten connected (IoT) devices on average and will rise to 50 in 2021, (Economic Times)
Spending on IoT Endpoint Security solutions will reach $631M in 2021, (Gartner)
The Smart Home IoT market will grow to $53.45 billion by 2022, (Statista)
Worldwide IoT spending surpassed $1 trillion in 2020 alone, (Sdx central)
Companies could invest up to $15 trillion in IoT by 2025, (Gigabit)
The biggest reason for IoT investment is cost-reduction, (IoT Analytics)

1-4 above, source: https://techjury.net/blog/how-many-iot-devices-are-there/#gref
5-9 above, Source: https://findstack.com/internet-of-things-statistics/

C) What has made IoT possible:

The next set of questions you might have are:

1) What are the driving forces behind all this IoT growth?
2) Why has IoT usage grown so much now?
3) What has enabled IoTs to be integral in almost everything we do, touch, etc.?

The simple answer is that the rapid increase in technological capabilities, miniaturization of devices, increased computing capacity and 24x7x365 high bandwidth are the enablers. The real reason is that this drives multiple win-wins including the decreased business cost and cycle times coupled with increases in accuracy and customer experience delivery. The chart below sums up these trends very succinctly.

IoT Revolution technology enablers — **IoT Enablers, Why Now**

D) How does IoT work

IoT systems consist of web-enabled smart devices that use embedded systems (that include processors, sensors, data storage/management hardware, and communication hardware, to collect, send and act on data they acquire from the surroundings where they are embedded. IoT devices either share the sensor data they collect to the cloud to be analyzed or the data is made available locally to be analyzed.

In certain instances, these IoT devices communicate with other related IoT devices and act on the information they compile and aggregate from each another. These IoT devices perform most of their own processing and decision making without the need for human intervention, although persons can interact with the devices to either install them, provide updated instructions, or access and monitor the data associated with the systems they are overseeing and/or controlling.

E) The benefits of IoT, the IoT Revolution

Never has there been such a win-win enabled by technology than with the explosion of the use of IoT. Businesses win by enabling greater efficiency and accuracy while driving costs and time to market simultaneously lower. At the same time, companies can increase the ease of doing business with them through increased customer convenience along with increased customer experiences (marketing, sales, customer service, products, services, etc.) by having greater IoT enabled insights into what customer really need and want. The following chart captures some of the IoT enabled win-wins both for business and customers.

IoT Revolution business and customer benefits — **Business and Consumer Benefits of IoT**

F) The IOT Revolution: The Balanced Positives and Negatives of IoT

To not just present benefits of implementing IoT in the above chart, I also developed the following chart to show additional IoT positives balanced with negatives. For example, for business the benefit is the decreased maintenance cost and equipment downtime, while a negative is the risk of hacking and hijacking of IoT devices connected data and systems, etc. for both customers and businesses.

**Balanced Business and Customer Positives and Negatives of IoT**

G) The IOT Revolution: Most Popular IoT Architecture Platforms in 2021

Here is a list of the most popular IoT platforms In 2021 from SoftwareTestingHelp.

Google Cloud Platform
OpenRemote
IRI Voracity
Particle
ThingWorx
IBM Watson IoT
Amazon AWS IoT Core
Microsoft Azure IoT Suite
Oracle IoT
Cisco IoT Cloud Connect
Altair SmartWorks
Salesforce IoT Cloud

In the article from SoftwareTestingHelp, (source: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/best-iot-platforms/), there is a detailed description for each platform as well as high level pricing for each platform.

H) The IOT Revolution: The 10 Hottest Industrial IoT Platforms Of 2020

If you’re a larger industrial company, you’ll also want to view this list of top enterprise level IoT platform providers listed below:

Altizon Datonis
Amazon Web Services IoT (also on the most popular list in G, 7) above
Flutura Cerebra
Hitachi Vantara Lumada (Listed in Gartner’s “Leader” Quadrant)
IBM Watson IoT (also on the most popular list in G, 6) above
Litmus Edge
Microsoft Azure IoT (Listed in Gartner’s “Leader” Quadrant)
Oracle IoT Cloud Service, (also on the most popular list in G, 9) above
PTC ThingWorx (Listed in Gartner’s “Leader” Quadrant), also on the most popular list in G, 5) above
Software AG Cumulocity

Source: https://www.crn.com/slide-shows/internet-of-things/the-10-hottest-industrial-iot-platforms-of-2020

I) The IOT Revolution: Most Popular IoT Services Companies for 2021:

Enlisted below are some of the most popular IoT Software Solutions and Services Companies worldwide.

List of Best Internet of Things Companies

ScienceSoft (USA & Europe)
iTechArt (New York, US)
Oxagile (New York, US)
Indium Software (USA, UK, Singapore)
Softeq (Houston, Texas, USA)
Style Lab IoT Software Company (San Francisco, CA)
HQ Software Industrial IoT Company (USA & Europe)
PTC (Boston, Massachusetts)
Cisco (San Jose, CA)
ARM IoT Security Company (Cambridge, Cambs)
Hawei (Shenzhen, Guangdong)
GE Digital (San Ramon, California)
Bosch IoT Sensor Company (Farmington Hills, MI)
SAP (Walldorf, Germany)
Siemens IoT Analytics Company (Berlin and Munich, Germany)
IBM (New York, U.S.)
Source: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/top-iot-companies/

I would also add to the top of the list Tata Consulting Services (TCS) as a company who excels in IoT strategy and integration consulting.

Tata Consulting Services (TCS)

J) The IOT Revolution: Example Companies Going all In on IoT

While there are many companies embracing and adopting the concept of IoT, one stands out in particular. Honeywell has made IoT a centerpiece of their future company strategy and has developed a new IoT platform called Honeywell Forge. You may have seen some of the ads they are currently running online, on cable channels and in print. Honeywell plans to roll out versions of this IoT platform for the airline, industrials and buildings verticals.

I interviewed with Honeywell a while back for a Director of Customer Experience position and was impressed at how passionate they are was about IoT and how well they understood that it enabled much higher levels of customer experience. Other companies who have introduced IoT platforms include GE, Siemens and Johnson Controls (competitor to Honeywell).

K) The IOT Revolution: Sample IoT Use Cases that illustrate the Customer Experience Benefits

1) Customer, Personal IoT Digital Assistants Use Case Benefits:

The user of at home personal digital IoT assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant, Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and Samsung’s Bixby have exploded in the past 5+ years. They have enabled an entire new level of convenience for consumers. The increased customer intimacy and insights gathering comes with the potential balanced decrease in privacy. Users of digital personal assistants are generally aware and ok with this tradeoff due to the delivered convenience and enhanced customer experience. The chart below illustrates a sample of delivered customer experiences based on the potential to learn about users/customers and the enabled delivery of great customer experiences based on leveraging these enhanced insights.

IoT Revolution personal customer experience benefits — **Personal Customer Experience Benefits of IoT, Personal Assistant Example**

2) Business, Fleet Management IoT Benefits Use Case:

The user of IoT in fleet management has also increased dramatically in the past several years. The use of these fleet management IoT solutions have enabled an entire new level of convenience for both their business users as well as the customers they serve. The chart below illustrates a sample of delivered customer experiences based on the potential to learn about users/customers and the enabled delivery of great customer experiences based on leveraging these enhanced insights.

**Business Customer Experience Benefits of IoT, Fleet Management Example**

3) IoT Dashboard Example with Customer Experience Benefits:

Source: https://www.sisense.com/dashboard-examples/manufacturing/iot-live-energy/

Above is a superb example of an IoT insights power management dashboard created via Sisense, a company that “Builds custom analytic experiences” and “Embeds actionable intelligence anywhere.” to “Transform the way you work.”

In this power management example, the Sisense enabled dashboard displays all the performance measures associated with the IoT monitoring devices such as the following:

1) Device A, B, C Power usage, voltage, frequency, and current
2) Average Power by device (A, B, C)
3) Energy Consumption over time by device (A, B, C)
4) Current over time by device (A, B, C)
5) Voltage over time by device (A, B, C)

In this example above, a customer user can remotely monitor systems and proactively watch for performance measures that show power supply or regulation degradation. In times past, instead of the IoT performing the monitoring, the monitoring would instead have to be accomplished by sending a person to manually monitor 3 devices (Device A, B, C) on a periodic schedule to ensure they are operating correctly and to manually intercede if they are malfunctioning.

In the same manner that businesses have benefitted by an increase in convenience and business (B2B) customer experience, IoT has enabled the consuming public to be able to interact with their vehicles, home security systems, personal assistants, smart phones, etc. to also improve their lives through increased convenience and improved personal (B2C) customer experiences. Smarter IoT devices become smarter in automating tasks, maintaining our needs, preventing malfunctions and breakdowns, ensuring we get what we need when we need it, increasing our safety and security, while bring us life’s needs at the sound of our voices while going about our normal routines.

L) The IOT Revolution: Summary

IoT stands for the “Internet Of Things” and is simply smart devices that monitor, control, and interact for a variety of functions that collect and transmit data from an array of IoT devices through telematics.
IoT has emerged as one of the fastest growing technology segments in the last several years and will continue this pace of massive growth for the next 5-10 years.
IoT rapid market diffusion has been enabled by even smaller and more powerful device level processing capacity, aided by IoT enabled cloud technology.
IoT has been embedded in almost every aspect of our day-to-day lives including cars, homes, critical infrastructure, personal wearables, etc.
IoT has delivered a tremendous amount of benefit to businesses in terms of reduced cycle times and costs.
While IoT has delivered many benefits, there are a set of downsides to IoT that must be considered and actively managed like the increased risk of hacking and hijacking.
While many businesses would point to the reduction in costs and cycle times as the major business case justification, the common denominator for both business and consumers is the increased convenience and improvement in customer experiences.

The bottom line for IoT is, as stated by the title of this article simultaneously improves customer convenience and customer experience while simultaneously decreasing business cycle times and overall cost. This statement clearly sums up why we are in the midst of an IoT revolution and why the market for IoT has and will continue to experience explosive growth.

M) The IOT Revolution: Need help getting started in improving your IoT driven Customer Experience?

If your organization is seeking a proven resource in measuring and improving your customer service and experience via IoT, then give me a call or e-mail me at 518-339-5857 or stevenjeffes@gmail.com

Lastly, this is just one article of 50+ articles I have written on customer strategy, customer experience, CRM, marketing, product management, competitive intelligence, corporate innovation, change management – all of which I have significant experience in delivering for Fortune 500 companies. In fact, my blog is now followed by nearly 106,000 world-wide and was just named one of the top 100 CRM blogs on the planet by Feedspot, alongside Salesforce.com, Infor, Microsoft, SAS, etc. – Reference this informative site here: https://blog.feedspot.com/crm_blogs/

Filed under Change Management, Corporate Innovation, Customer Experience, Customer Profitability, customer service, customer strategy Tagged with Altair SmartWorks IoT, Altizon Datonis, Amazon Alexa, Amazon AWS IoT Core, Apple Siri, Benefits of IoT, Bosch IoT Sensor Company, Cisco IoT, Cisco IoT Cloud Connect, customer convenience IoT, customer experience AI, customer experience automation, customer experience IoT, customer experience technology, Digital Assistants IoT, Facility Monitoring IoT, Fleet Management IoT, Flutura Cerebra IoT, free IoT information, Gartner IoT quadrant, GE Digital IoT, getting started with IoT, Google Assistant, Google Cloud Platform IoT, Hawei, Hitachi Vantara Lumada IoT, Honeywell Forge, honeywell IoT, Honeywell Safety and Security, Honeywell Safety and Security IoT, Honeywell Sensing IoT, HQ Software Industrial IoT Company, IBM IoT, IBM Watson IoT, Indium Software IoT, Internet of Things IoT, IoT applications, IoT best practices, IoT connected devices, IoT convenience, IoT CRM, IoT CRM integration, IoT customer applications, IoT customer experience, IoT customer experience improvement, IoT customer experience metrics, IoT customer experience trends, IoT customer service, IoT customer service improvement, IoT dashboard, IoT Dashboard example, IoT definition, IoT devices, IoT downside, IoT enablers, IoT enabling technologies, IoT examples, IoT GPS, IoT hacking, IoT hijacking, IoT home devices, IoT made simple, IoT market, IoT mechanical sensors, IoT metrics, IoT negatives, IoT quick start, IoT risk management, IoT risks, IoT security, IoT smart home systems, IoT smart phones, IoT smart TV, IoT spend, IoT subscriptions, IoT technologies, IoT trends, IoT vehicle navigation, IRI Voracity IoT, iTechArt, Johnson Controls IoT, Litmus Edge IoT, Logistics IoT, Microsoft Azure IoT, Microsoft Azure IoT Suite, Microsoft Cortana, OpenRemote IoT, Oracle IoT, Oxagile IoT, Particle IoT, Pipeline IoT, PTC IoT, RFID IoT, Salesforce IoT Cloud, Samsung Bixby, SAP IoT, ScienceSoft IoT, Siemens IoT, Siemens IoT Analytics Company, Sisense IoT, Smart Home IoT, Softeq IoT, Software AG Cumulocity IoT, Steven Jeffes, Steven Jeffes Blog, Style Lab IoT Software Company, Tata consulting services, Tata Consulting Services IoT, TCS, TCS IoT, Telematics definition, ThingWorx IoT, top 100 CRM blogs, top IoT companies, top IoT integrators, top IoT platforms, top IoT software, top IoT solution providers, top IoT solutions, What is IoT, What is telematics

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Powered Customer Service

June 23, 2021 1 Comment

Leverage Customers as the Chief Customer Officer (CCO) While Increasing Customer Diversity and Inclusion

May 25, 2021 Leave a comment

How & why top companies are inverting their organization charts and putting their own customers in the seat of the Chief Customer Officer while increasing Customer Diversity & Inclusion (D&I).

How and why putting customers into the Chief Customer Officer seat also leads to the following ratings:

1) Higher NPS,
2) Increased customer loyalty,
3) Increased customer satisfaction levels & CSAT,
4) Growth in customer zealots that virally promote your brands and company,
5) Increased customer diversity and inclusion (D&I).

The top 10 things you will learn by reading this blog on the chief customer officer:

1) The spectrum of customer first cultures – find out where you stand on this spectrum.
2) The trends in developing customer insights and customer feedback via customer inclusionary programs and customer onramps.
3) How customer onramps support customer diversity and inclusion (i.e., customer D&I programs).
4) Customer Experience metrics from real companies who have developed and deployed these customer onramps.
5) Creative win-wins to make your customer experience more fun, engaging, educational, rewarding, and inclusive.
6) Innovations in creating customer communities that increase brand loyalty, customer referrals.
7) Market leading companies and their case studies in leveraging customers as the Chief Customer Officer (CCO).
8) The customer organization Inversion and customer empowerment of the future.
9) Quick & easy wins in getting started in the customer inversion that will create customer zealots and a customer experience 2nd to none.
10) The top 10 things you should immediately consider implementing to increase Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) levels, NPS and customer loyalty rates by double digits.

A) The Customer Organizational Inversion-Revolution (Customers–> Chief Customer Officer):

There is an organizational customer inversion-revolution going on and it will only accelerate in the future. What this revolution entails is a complete inversion of the customer decision making structure for companies, one where the customers (vs. the company) are in charge, leading the design of customer strategy and future customer programs. I call it the customer inversion revolution. This inversion looks something like the chart below. We will detail this customer organization inversion-revolution in following sections of this blog.

FROM:

Traditional Customer Service Organization

TO:

Customer Service Organization Inversion-Revolution

Key to implementing this customer organizational inversion-revolution is the development of customer inclusionary “on ramps” (shown in the green symbol above) that allows customers to participate and join the company team as brand partners, advocates, insights experts, advisors, etc. We will cover this more in depth in following sections but hence forward, customer on ramps will be designated by this symbol below:

Customer Inclusionary Onramp

These onramps detailed in the following blog increase customer inclusion by their very nature of creating an array of customer chosen methods for these customers to contribute to and participate in the company’s success. The enhanced diversity is derived from tapping into and leveraging the diverse set of perspectives and needs from existing customers that represent a cross-section of different cultures, races, genders, ages, political views, national origins and religions, etc. so that the best product and/or services are engaged in the marketplace.

Many companies have omitted these onramps in the vetting of new products, services, marketing campaigns, etc. and have ended up offending and alienating their own customers and potential prospects. A great web article points to how companies have fielded expensive and disastrous marketing campaigns and ads in the past only to have to quickly pull them from the market. Additional customer experience and customer leadership resources are available through the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA): https://cxpaglobal.org/.

These campaigns/ads are often a result of corporate myopathy and not taking into account a multitude of diverse perspectives enabled by an array of customer D&I onramps: “7 of the most controversial ads of our time” https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/04/08/7-the-most-controversial-ads-our-time. A major West Coast bank vets all of it marketing concepts through a customer insights group (covered below) before ever releasing the ad and/or campaign into the market. Only after the CIG group (onramp) has weighed in and provided their approval and feedback will this bank to go market with their marketing concepts.

Bottom line, these onramps enable your customers to become brand and company partners/advocates who, through time and continued onramp participation, develop an ever increasing vested interest in the brand(s) and company success.

To be receptive to this change and to get onboard with customer leaders who are in the process of putting customers in charge and implementing the customer organizational inversion-revolution, you must first have a foundational customer centric culture. Companies that are implementing this customer centric change and building customer brand partners include Apple, Southwest Airlines, Ritz Carlton, Amazon, Marriott, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc. Let us first explore what a customer centric culture is and the spectrum of companies on the customer centric continuum.

B) The Customer First, Customer Centric Culture

To begin with, almost every company claims to be customer centric, that their customers are their most important asset, customer satisfaction is a priority, etc. In practice I have found that there is a spectrum of truth to these public statements ranging from treating customers as a necessary commodity to the other end of the spectrum and treating customers as equal and respected partners and treating customers as a true extension of the company-employee team.

Referring to the chart below, we can see that spectrum of company cultures and their treatment of customers based on these different company customer cultures. To simplify this illustration, I have only included 3 types of companies as follows (along top of chart):

Customer Centric Company Spectrum

“Customers are our most valuable asset”: Companies that truly value their customers and view them as an integral part of their team and company’s success. This type of company also maintains a true customer first culture, policies, standards, etc. (right side of chart, spectrum).
“We Value our Best Customers”: Companies that only strive to cater to their most valuable customers since these customers benefit the company the most (middle of chart, spectrum).
“Customers are a Necessary Commodity”: Companies that interact and ‘deal with’ customers when it benefits them (they pay lip service to slogan ‘customers are their most important asset’), left side of chart, spectrum.

On the left side of the above chart, we have a number of customer facing dimensions including the following:

1) “Customer Input”: How the company views and approaches soliciting customers for insights, input on new programs, detailed feedback (i.e., focus groups, crowdsourcing, etc.), etc.
2) “Customer Complaints”: How the company views and approaches the handling of customers complaints.
3) “Customer Inclusion, Partnership”: How the company approaches being customer inclusive by offering customers ways to partner with the company including online communities, customer co-blogging, customer spotlights, etc.
4) “Customer Engagement”: How the company approaches customer communication and creates a rewarding and engaging customer experience.

Companies located on the far-right side of the chart have the following belief that is not only a slogan, but embodied in the company culture, operations, practices, standards, rewards systems, etc.:

“Customers are our Most Valuable Asset”.

For the first customer dimension on the left side of the chart, “Customer Input”, a comment that I heard from a CEO with this type of culture is as follows:

“We make no (major) decisions (that will impact the customer) without the customer’s direct input”.

For the first customer dimension of “Customer Complaints”, a company CEO said the following,

“Customer complaints are a valuable insight and gift to help us improve, beat our competition”.

You can read the comments for each type of company aligned to each customer dimension. Bottom line, without a foundational customer first mindset, rewards and incentive system and culture, you will be impeded on implementing the effective customer inclusion program with many possible customer onramps detailed in the remainder of this blog.

C) Chief Customer Officer Best Practices: Mainstream Customer Inclusionary Programs & Onramps:

As I mentioned before, once you have established a totally customer centric culture, the 2nd step is to build customer incremental onramps for the customer to become a brand partner and an integral part of the customer team. These onramps invite the customer to participate in a number of activities that will increase customer satisfaction (CSAT), loyalty, NPS, viral referrals, etc. Based on my experience, building these customer inclusionary onramps can net your company huge increases in key customer measures as follows:

1) NPS: +14 to 49
2) Customer Loyalty: + 4% to 36%
3) Customer Positive Sentiment: +12% to 71%
4) Customer Viral Referrals: +11% to 26%

Customer On-Ramp: Customer Advisory Board Program

1) Customer Advisory Board Program:

A Customer Advisory Board (CAB) is the composition of a group of trusted, and generally top customers, who meet on a regular basis (i.e., Quarterly) to advise the company on strategic direction such as the product and/or service roadmap and on upcoming major new programs. Customer advisory boards (a.k.a. trusted customer advisors) can also be a conduit to award top customers for their input, loyalty, spend, referrals, etc.

At a top US automotive company, we invited our top and most open/honest customers to these focus group and advisory events, paid their travel expenses, hosted a nice dinner reception and, at the end of the session, gave them an appreciation gift for their continued participation and loyalty. We also had Platinum private customer events for our top 1% spend customers which were meetings with the EVP and above for open-ended candid feedback & insights gathering discussions.

Customer On-Ramp: Customer Insights Group Program

2) Customer Insights Group Program:

A Customer Insights Group (CIG) is the composition of a wider cross-section of customers or specific customer segment(s) who meet on a regular basis (i.e., weekly, quarterly) to advise the company on new tactical programs, proposed sales campaigns, and marketing concepts, provide feedback on existing program effectiveness, provide customer experience insights based on their own actual experience, etc. Customer insights groups are usually on a voluntary enrollment basis and typically come with some sort of incentive to participate (i.e., participate and be entered in a drawing for a gift certificate).

A top 5 US bank uses these extensively and there is a directive from the CMO that no new marketing programs/materials/etc. will be fielded without first getting the input of this insights group. After implementing this program, marketing effectiveness increased by an overall 27% and the loyalty of the group increased by a whopping 38% as compared to non-CIG participants. When surveyed, 92% of CIG members indicated that they told 26+ about their positive perception of this bank CIG program (survey choices were 0-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-25 or 26+).

Amazingly enough, 5,000 participants volunteer up to 8 hours of their time per week to participate with another 5,000 eagerly waiting in the wings for their term to participate (participation is limited to a 2-year term).

In addition, by tapping into a diverse customer set, the bank was able to avoid potential marketing disasters by stopping the fielding of proposed marketing materials that were deemed offensive and culturally insensitive by members of the customer insights group.

Customer On-Ramp: Customer Co-blogging & Co-Authoring Program

3) Customer Co-Blogging & Co-Author Program:

Customers telling their story (the voice of the customer) about their success in using your product/service and their customer experiences are 5-7x more credible than coming from the company. In addition, customer authors bring with them an entirely new audience sphere (their friends, connection, relatives, etc.) which will result in a dramatically increasing your website traffic, SEO, referrals, etc. Customers love the opportunity to be spotlighted and write their own story (with helpful company editing of course) when it comes to their experience interacting with the company. Co-blogging can also be about customer stories with a human-interest side to it vs. always being business oriented. Customer co-authored articles can be about topics such as how to gain the most value from the product/service, tips/tricks they have learned, the value they have gained from using same, etc.

We recently used this for a struggling newsletter program that had only penetrated 27% of our customer base. Six months after I implemented the co-blogging program, the newsletter distribution grew to 56% of our customer base and we experienced a simultaneous increase of 17% in new visitor web traffic.

Customer On-Ramp: Top Customer Appreciation & Recognition Program

4) Top Customer Appreciation & Recognition Program:

Remember the movie “Up in the Air” with George Clooney? He was a top traveler who strived to be in the 1% club in terms of air miles flown per year on a particular airline whereby, if he achieved this distinction, he would then be invited to an awards dinner with the CEO of the airline and be showered with a whole host of flying perks after achieving that level of spend/loyalty. Banks, hotels, brokerage firms, etc. all have an array of top customer loyalty rewards programs.

For the very top customers, there are more hands-on personal perks like a dedicated/private concierge assigned to customers like for the American Express Black credit card which can only be obtained by direct invite by American Express (i.e. not via request). A top US air conditioning company I used to work for had top distributorship recognition events for the distributors who sold the highest revenue generating air conditioning units. While focused internally for a company, many salespersons have benefitted from such top achievement loyalty programs by achieving the distinction as top salespersons for their companies and being rewarded with trips, cash, luxury items, cars, etc. as a thank you for their contributions.

Customer On-Ramp: Customer Product/Service Beta Group Program

5) Customer Product/Service Beta Group Program:

Before top companies like Microsoft and Apple ever release a new product into the market, they first try these new products with limited volunteer beta groups. They gather feedback from these beta test groups and then continuously improve the beta product before releasing the product to mitigate potentially disastrous consequences of releasing products with potential flaws that internal testing failed to consider via their test cases.

Customer On-Ramp: Customer Success Program

6) Customer Success (Spotlight) Program:

Does your company have successful customers using your product and/or service? Why not showcase or spotlight this success by detailing what they did, how they did it and the value they were able to derive from doing so? Challenge customers to submit their success stories for selection to spotlight in the newsletter, website, articles, FAQs, consideration for prizes for the top stories, etc. The more customers witness real customer successes, the more other customers will want to figure out how to acquire your product/service to emulate the success of other customers.

Customer On-Ramp: Ambassador Program

7) Customer Ambassador Program:

The Syracuse University (SU) admissions and student success programs received a big boost with the adoption of its Alumni ambassador program whereby successful alumni would volunteer to host regional recruiting events, student college send-off events, and answer questions from interested students in their area. Alumni ambassador groups increased the level of excitement and enthusiasm for new students and families while simultaneously decreasing the levels of anxiety and confusion among students and families.

The entire ecosystem of a customer first, customer inclusive company that has inverted the customer organizational structure and has built a comprehensive set of customer onramps to be able to put customers in charge of customer operations would look something like the following chart:

Customer Inclusionary & Participatory Programs, Onramps

D) Chief Customer Officer Best Practices: Other Customer Inclusionary Programs & Onramps:

In addition to the more popular and mainstream customer inclusionary programs above, there are several other programs that I have encountered that were effective by increasing the levels or customer loyalty and creating many customer-brand zealots (those who actively and aggressively advocate for the brand/company).

Customer On-Ramp: Creative Council Program

1) Customer Creative Council Program:

Many customers have a wide range of creative talents outside of simply being a customer. A company with a large customer base tends to have customers who are very creative such as artists, craftspeople, etc. A large SaaS software firm I consulted for would solicit creative ideas for new campaign concepts from the creative group among their customer base (and sometimes from their employees) to get the best creative concepts as possible. Many times, customers would develop far more appealing creative concepts than their own dedicated creative talent working within the company. Why not source from the best of the best, including creative customers?! This would allow the company to harness this creativity while allowing creative customers to be spotlighted for their hidden talents and feel valued by the company.

Customer On-Ramp: Talent Showcase
Program

2) Customer Talent Showcase Program:

Beyond just being creative, a company with a large customer base typically includes customers who are also poets, book authors, those with interesting and varied professions such as paramedics, volunteer firefighters, food bank volunteers, world travelers, iron men or women, triathletes, extreme cyclists, paragliders, scuba divers, treasure hunters, etc. Many companies I have worked with have conducted customer showcases that highlight the interesting lives of their customer base beyond merely being a customer. These personal story showcases add a human-interest side to the customer base and tend to make customers feel more connected to and understood-appreciated by the company.

Customer Journey Customer Co-Mapping

3) Customer Involved Customer Journey Mapping & Continuous Improvement Program:

Are you planning on creating a customer journey map and want to know what the important steps and metrics are in that journey? Why not invite the customer to join in on these development sessions to provide the team with some insights, feedback, important items to consider? I have used this approach quite effectively and have developed far more qualitative customer journeys as a result. I used this approach to develop a brand new and innovative customer journey map I have labeled “The Quantifiable Customer Journey Map”. Refer to my previous blog article for insights here: https://bit.ly/3bvPRal

The Quantifiable Customer Journey Map

Bottom line, without the customer’s input, the high quality achieved in the final customer journey map would have been much more difficult and time consuming to achieve.

Customer Diversity & Inclusion Council

4) Customer Diversity & Inclusion Council:

A few companies I have worked with in the past have managed and conducted employee diversity councils whereby employees would provide their perspective on how the company can be more diverse, culturally sensitive, and overall inclusive.

A few companies have taken this further and included their own customers into the diversity council along with their employees. In this manner, the company ensures that it is considering the widest possible perspective on D&I and not falling victim to company group think.

Regardless of whether you include a formal customer diversity council, what all the above illustrated customer onramps do in essence is help build a company culture that supports customer diversity and inclusion (D&I) as follows:

1) Enables the assembling of a diverse set of perspectives, based on unique and diverse set of customer experiences, needs, etc.
2) Provides diverse feedback on potential new customer programs, marketing, etc. that might be perceived as offensive and discriminatory to certain customer groups.
3) Enables customers to showcase their diverse backgrounds, talents, interests, viewpoints.
4) Enables a voice of the customer cultivation that represents the full cross section of diverse customers.
5) Enables the delivery of the best of the best solutions by allowing feedback on proposed programs from a wide and diverse set of customers.

If your organization is seeking experienced assistance in creating these customer onramps and a more diverse and inclusive and customer first organization where customers are leveraged to assist the insights Chief Customer Officer (CCO) and are transitioned to full brand-partners/advocates/participants/etc., then give me a call or e-mail me at 518-339-5857 or stevenjeffes@gmail.com. I am also a Certified CultureTalk (https://culturetalk.com/) consultant that can help you develop and/or improve a customer-oriented, customer first culture.

Steven Jeffes, Certified CultureTalk Consultant

Lastly, this is just one article of over 60 articles I have written on customer strategy, customer experience, CRM, sales excellence, marketing, product management, competitive intelligence, corporate innovation, change management – all of which I have significant experience in delivering for numerous Fortune 500 companies.

Filed under Change Management, Company Culture, CRM, Customer Profitability, customer service, customer strategy Tagged with Amazon, American Express, American Express black card, Apple, Bank of America, best culture improvement consulting firms, best customer experience improvement consulting firms, brand partners, brand partnership, brand zealots, CAB, Carrier Air Conditioning, CCEO, CCO, Chief Customer Experience Officer, Chief Customer Officer, CIG, Cox Automotive, CSAT, culture improvement consultants, culture improvement consulting firms, CultureTalk, customer advice, customer advice bureau, customer advisors, customer advisors free, customer advisory board, customer advisory charter, customer advisory council, customer advisory events, customer advisory template, customer advocacy, customer advocacy board, customer advocacy council, customer advocacy definition, customer advocacy group, customer advocate, customer advocate job description, customer advocates, customer ambassador 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participation, voice of customer, voice of the customer cultivation, voice of the customer insights, voice of the customer programs, voice of the customer samples

Introducing: The Quantifiable Customer Journey Map (CJM)

March 9, 2021 1 Comment

The top 10 things you will learn by reading this blog article:
1) What a customer journey map is and what it is used for.
2) What a customer service map is and what it used for.
3) The business benefits of developing a best practice customer journey.
4) How a customer journey map and a customer service map relate and map to each other.
5) Best practices in the development of customer journey maps and customer service maps.
6) How to build a hierarchy of customer journey map levels such that a customer service map is a natural outcome of the customer journey mapping process.
7) What completed examples of customer journey maps and service maps look like.
8) What critical components are missing from many customer journey maps.
9) How the invention, development and rollout of the quantifiable customer journey map is the wave of the future adding tremendous new business and customer value to its usage.
10) How this new quantifiable customer journey map is the most comprehensive and quantifiable method to come along.

One of the relatively newer tools for larger companies and enterprises in the customer experience professional’s toolbox is the practice of customer journey mapping as well as customer service mapping. First, a complete and simple definition of both of these tools is as follows:

1) Customer journey map definition (Customer’s Viewpoint):

For additional guidance on customer journey mapping best practices, the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) provides valuable customer experience resources:https://www.cxpa.org/

A customer journey map is the pictorial representation, from the customer’s viewpoint, of their experience of interacting with a company for various customer service needs.

2) CJM definition (Company’s Internal Viewpoint):

A customer service map is the pictorial representation, from the company’s (internal) viewpoint, of the capabilities and processes used to fulfill various customer service needs.

Difference Between the Two Definitions Above: The major difference between the two techniques above is the perspective as follows:

Journey mapping is from the customer’s external viewpoint (interacting with the company for various customer service needs), while the service map is an internal viewpoint (company provision of services for various customer needs).

One key point is that service mapping is much less valuable if constructed prior to building the customer journey map. A best practice customer journey map documents the major paths the customer uses to obtain service from the company, the various reasons customers interact with the company, gaps in the current delivery of customer service, best practices that should be kept and strengthened and most importantly, it should map and track customer health metrics that customers indicate are most important to them. Once this journey is documented and mapped, then the current state and future state service maps can be constructed to determine how and how well the company is serving the customer including any service gaps that need to be filled.

It is worthy to note that there are now a number of emerging tools that automate the development of a customer journey map. While these accelerate the timeline of the development of the customer journey map, the automation of this process can shortchange the most valuable parts of the team map development exercise which include the following (sample):

Team discussion & agreement on the overall current state of customer service and experience.
Team customer journey point of view discussion, socialization and consensus building.
Team prioritization of the top future state customer service programs and processes.
Developing team concurrence on the matrix of cost to serve vs. service quality delivery levels.

I have used these customer experience tools extensively in the past during numerous client consulting engagements and found them very useful. Some of the business benefits for utilizing these tools are as follows:

1) Provides a comprehensive pictorial of the various paths the customer transits through to obtain service from the company.
2) Provides a great assessment of the current state of customer practices and customer health.
3) Provides a great assessment of the future (needed) state of the optimal way to provide customer service that would enhance the service quality level vs. current state.
4) Provides a gateway to be able to map out internal service pathways as well as to document existing gaps and opportunities in those pathways.
5) (New) The “Quantifiable Customer Journey Map” now provides the best assessment of the current state of customer health across all major customer journey phases.
6) (New) The “Quantifiable Customer Journey Map” now provides the best snapshot of both the current state of customer health as well as needed future state program capabilities based directly on customer input and feedback.

One of the major historical gaps in producing customer journey maps was that many times the journey map merely documented the customer journey and experience without regard to the measurement of customer relevant metrics that can be leveraged to increase customer loyalty, spend, share of wallet, CSAT, NPS, etc. The exercise to measure customer health was often performed separately or in parallel to the customer journey mapping process. In order to bridge this gap in many existing customer journey maps, I have developed a new and innovative way to map a customer journey while simultaneous accomplishing the following:
1) Cultivating and documenting the customer metrics that matter most to the customer.
2) Delivering current state quantification of those top customer metrics.
3) Delivering feedback from the customer on what capabilities future state customer programs should contain.

Introducing: The NEW Quantifiable CJM

The following graphic is the final version of a new quantifiable customer journey map I have developed which now includes the discrete measurement of customer health as part of the customer journey map development process. I will break down and detail each best practice component of this new customer journey map in later sections of this article.

The Quantifiable Customer Journey Map

Best Practice Customer Journey Detailed Components
Next we will detail each component of this new “quantifiable customer journey map”.

First let’s detail how the components of a customer journey map are determined. The structural framework components of a customer journey map exist along the x and y axis of the map. The components you will find in both the x-axis and y-axis of a customer journey map are actually highly variable based on the type of customer journey map being constructed. Below is a sample list of the most common types of customer journey maps.

Existing Types of Customer Journey Maps:

1) Current state map
2) Future state map
3) Macro map (strategic),
4) Micro-level map (tactical)
5) User experience maps
6) Customer emotion map
7) Day in the life map

This new and more effective quantifiable customer journey map I will cover takes into account many of the following from above (1-4) plus something new & innovative:

1) Current state map
2) Future state map
3) Macro-map (strategic)
4) Micro-level map (tactical)
5) New & Innovative: Quantifiable current state of customer health across all journey phases.

This last customer journey map component (5) is missing from many other customer journey maps but has been incorporated into this new quantifiable customer journey map. This new method in my opinion is by far the most comprehensive snapshot you can take of current customer health as well as simultaneously taking into account both macro and micro customer journey map components. This new method also integrates customer service mapping in a single synergistic exercise.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map Detail Components (x-axis)

The first component of the quantifiable customer journey map exists along the top (horizontal) portion of the map, representing the major stages the customer transits through in a common customer journey. Customer journey phases exist along the x-axis commonly for many, but not all, customer journey maps. Typically several major top-level (level 1.0) customer journeys exist to document critical and common customer paths such as new customer, renewing customer, customer obtaining customer service, etc. Depicted below are the major phases (level 1.0) for a new customer journey for a client who sells SaaS market analytics/AI software. Remember, a customer journey map is a structural framework that, no matter the type variation, should always be constructed from the customer’s (vs. the company’s) viewpoint.

Quantifiable Customer Map Journey Customer Stages (x-axis)

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map Detail Components (y-axis)
The y-axis of the quantifiable customer journey map contains the following components (developed from the customer’s perspective and via customer direct input):
1) Sub Level Customer Journeys – The level 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc. sub-journeys that the customer experiences as they typically transit each phase of the top 1.0 level customer journey.
2) New! Top 2-3 Customer Needs and Drivers – Driven by direct customer input and feedback, the top 2-3 needs and drivers (i.e. what is most important) for each phase of the customer journey
3) New! Customer Ratings and Metrics (rating scale of 1.0 to 5.0) – Driven by direct customer input and feedback, the current (snapshot) quantification of the top 2-3 customer needs and drivers for each phase of the customer journey.
4) Current State Best Practices – Driven by direct customer input and feedback, the top best practices that are operating well within each phase of the customer journey. These best practices should be retained and continuously improved to maintain a competitive edge.
5) Suggested Future State Programs – A comprehensive review of the current state gaps for each customer journey phase such that future state customer experience programs can be implemented to improve customer satisfaction levels.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map Framework Components (y-axis)

Sub-Micro Customer Journeys
The first detail in the y-axis customer journey is the documentation of which customer sub-journeys can be broken down to the 1.1, 1.2, etc. level for each major (level 1.0) customer journey phase. For example, under the first customer journey stage of “Customer Purchases”, there exists the sub-phases (level 1.1) of the following:
1.1 Customer Discovery (we will show an example of this sublevel drill-down later in this article)
1.2 Customer Deep Dive Q&A
1.3 Customer Trial/Evaluation
1.4 Customer Explores Purchase Options
1.5 Customer Contract Evaluation, negotiation, closure
1.6 Customer On-Boarding Preparation
We detail how to drill down and further detail these customer journey sub-phases later in this article.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Level 1.0,
Customer Stage Sub-Journeys (y-axis, row 1)

The next two intricately tied y-axis components (rows 2 & 3) are the key components in this quantifiable customer journey:

1) The Top 2-3 Customer Needs and Drivers (Row 2) (for each 1.0 level customer journey phase):
These are determined by querying a cross segment of customers (via customer feedback-focus groups) about what is most important to them during that particular customer journey phase. These key customer needs and drivers then formulate the current state metrics that need to be, not only collected in an as-is current state assessment, but also collected systemically moving forward via automated customer health dashboards to determine ongoing and longitudinal customer health.
Continuing the drill down on the 1st phase, “Customer Purchases”, we find that customers are most concerned with, in order of importance:
a) How well the software covers their business requirements and business use cases (vs. price when against business requirements coverage %)
b) The Quality Perception of the Product/Brand/Company they are buying into for enterprise level software
c) Ease of Doing Business with the Company/Brand they are doing business with. Described another way in focus groups “we want to buy software from a company that values and respects our time and is easy (and a pleasure) to do business with”

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Level 1.0,
Top 2-3 Customer Needs and Drivers (y-axis, row 2)

2) The Current State Customer Ratings and Metrics (Row 3) (for each of the top customer phases needs and drivers):
This component is the current state quantification of the top 2-3 customer relevant measures from above as determined via direct customer measurement. In continuing with the previous example we find that the quantification of the top 3 measures for this particular client were as follows:
a) Price vs. functional fit index rating of 3.8 which indicates the company is meeting most of the needs of their customer’s use cases and needs. This client thought it important to gauge price along with functional fit rather than succumb to the ‘build it at any price’ product management quagmire.
b) Quality Perception index rating by customers of 1.9 is a low and concerning score that needs to be rectified
c) The ease of doing business CSAT score of 3.3 which, while slightly above average, still warrants some focus for improvement.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Level 1.0,
Customer Ratings and Metrics (y-axis, row 3)

As previously mentioned, once the current state snapshot is taken via the customer journey mapping process, the top 2-3 customer needs and drivers need to be incorporated into an overall automated “customer health metrics dashboard” that systemically and automatically tracks and monitors these metrics across all level 1.0 customer journey phases.

The quantification of customer health across all customer journey stages can quickly point to areas needing major improvements like the 2nd stage (“Customer On-boards”) highlighted in red below. Of particular concern is the very low metric of “Brand Support Education” at a rating of 1.7.

Next up are the yellow highlighted areas of 1 – “Customer Purchases” and 3 – “Customer Uses” and are the 2nd area where customer average phase ratings are less than superior (3.0 and 3.4 respectively). Of particular concern under the 1 -“Customer Purchases” stage is the low customer rating for the intra-phase detailed metric of “Quality Perception” with a score of 1.9.

Best Practice: Many companies often use the customer journey phase total metric as a measure of customer health (i.e. 1 -“Customer Purchases” and 3- “Customer Uses” ratings of 3.0 and 3.4 respectively), but a best practice is to also measure customer journey intra-phase sub-metrics like “Quality Perception” (rating of 1.9) under “Customer Purchases”. In this manner major specific and critically important customer service sub-processes can be measured and adjusted to ensure their continued effective operation.

Lastly, stages highlighted in green are 4 – “Customer Engages Brand”, 5 – “Customer Engages Support” and 6 – “Customer Renews “might be subject to ongoing continuous improvement since they are approaching superior ratings (3.8 averages for all 3 phases).

The sum totals of all level 1.0 ratings are as follows:
1 – Customer Purchases – 3.0
2 – Customer On-Boards – 1.7
3 – Customer Uses – 3.4
4 – Customer Engages Brand – 3.8
5 – Customer Engages Support – 3.8
6 – Customer Renews – 3.8
For an executive summary dashboard metric of 3.25 ((3.0+1.7+3.4+3.8+3.8+3.8)/6) for all level 1.0 customer journeys.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Level 1.0,
Highlighted Customer Ratings and Metrics (y-axis, row 3)

Full view of Customer Needs & Drivers with Ratings and Metrics (y-axis, row 3 & 4)

While the next two sections might appear to be constructed from the company’s point of view, these were carefully constructed via direct customer feedback and inquiry. By asking a cross section of customers a series of multi-dimensional questions (sample questions* below) these highly valuable insights were cultivated.

*Sample questions: “what is working well?”, “what were the top factors in your purchase (or renewal) decision?”, “what were the detractors in your decision to purchase (or renew)?”, “what else could we do to improve our functionality, processes, capabilities”, “what is missing vs. what you consider our competitor’s best practice?”, “what did you like most about the renewal process?”, etc..

While this inquiry results in additional cost and extends the timeline in the development of a customer journey map, the value of the insights generated are worth 2x-20x the investment.

Existing Best Practices (Row 4)
The next row (4) in the quantifiable customer journey map is the top best practices that are operating effectively and efficiently within each phase of the customer journey. These best practices should be maintained and continuously improved in order to maintain a competitive edge. Continuing with the drill-down on the 1st, “Customer Purchases” customer journey phase, we find the following best practices being employed that should be maintained and continuously improved:
1) Maintaining functionality considered within the top 5% of all competitors as rated by (name of rating company purposely omitted, client confidential).
2) Maintaining and continuously improving the flexible and highly optioned payment purchase plans.
3) Maintaining and strengthening the Gartner relationship such that we remain on their radar in a favorable way, get top recommendations for adoptions, market ratings.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Level 1.0,
Existing Best Practices to Maintain, Strengthen (y-axis, row 4)

Suggested Future Changes (Row 5)
The next row (5) in the quantifiable customer journey map is the top “Suggested Future Programs” that need to be implemented within each phase of the Level 1.0 customer journey map. Continuing with the drill-down on the 1st, “Customer Purchases” phase, we find the following improvement programs should be implemented:
1) In addition to the strong relationship we have with Gartner, maintaining and strengthening the relationship with several other top respected & independent software reviewer companies (names client confidential) such that we remain on their radars in a favorable way, get top recommendations for adoptions, market ratings.
2) Perform a multi-dimensional performance and “solution comprehensiveness” benchmark study vs. other top competitors and publish in a white paper and publish to 3rd party reviewers.
3) Continue to build out our product road map with the top rated desired customer functionality, taking into account the PY business case for the build-out of these functions.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Level 1.0,
Suggested Future Improvement Programs (y-axis, row 5)

Customer Journey Micro Stage Drill-Down (1.0 –> 1.1)
In order to fully document the customer journey process, it is important to drill down and document all major customer journey sub-levels where the customer receives a major different customer experience based on path chosen to fulfill their needs. The sections following demonstrate this technique and components but does not fully show all of the quantification components (y-axis) as shown in the above examples.

Below is the depiction of the mapping of the 1st customer journey phase of “Customer Purchases” under level 1.0 into the journey map that covers these sub-phases in customer journey map level 1.1

The sub-phases under this 1.1 level consist of the following:
1.1.1 Customer Discovery
1.1.2 Customer Deep Dive Q&A
1.1.3 Customer Trial/Evaluation
1.1.4 Customer Discusses Purchase Options
1.1.5 Customer Contract Evaluation, Negotiation, Closure
1.1.6 Customer On-boarding Preparation

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Level 1.0,”Customer Purchases”
Drill-Down to Level 1.1 Customer Journeys

Customer Journey Micro Sub-Stage Drill-Down (1.0 –> 1.1–> 1.2.1)
Here is the depiction of the drill down to the level 1.1 “Customer Discover” sub-phase under level 1.0 “Customer Purchases” that further details these sub-phases as follows:
Customer:
1.2.1 Visits Website
1.2.2 Calls Sales Team
1.2.3 Calls Account Team
1.2.4 Completes Web Query Form to Learn More
1.2.5 Requests 3rd party attestation information
1.2.6 Requests software demonstration (variants: scripted or unscripted)
These sublevels then can be further detailed and documented down to the 1.2.1.1 levels if necessary.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Level 1.1,”Customer Discovery”
Drill-Down to Level 1.2.x Customer Sub-Journeys

Hierarchy of Strategic Customer Journey Map to Tactical Map to Customer Service Map
Here is the full depiction of the hierarchy of the top level customer journey map major phases down to the sub-levels as well as to the service map we developed to document and diagnose how well the company was delivering upon their service level commitments and requirements (SLAs). Again, note that the customer journey map is typically and mostly from the customer’s viewpoint while the service map is constructed from an internal standpoint of HOW that service is provided to the customer.

One key take-away from this is that the service map documentation should align to the lowest logical level of customer journey map as to document all service map path permutations in order to ensure adequate customer service coverage as well as to document any gaps in the variants of service that are provided to the customer.

Quantifiable Customer Journey Map, Relationship & Hierarchy from Level 1.0 to Level 1.1 to Level 1.2 to the Customer Service Map Detail

Best Practice Customer Service Map
Here is a depiction of a portion of the customer service map that aligns to the 1.2.x level of the customer journey map. While this graphic is not the full service map for “Customer Discovery”, it illustrates the major components of a service map. The service map is constructed from an internal standpoint of HOW that service is provided to the customer via the various methods and channels.

A future blog topic will cover more in-depth the best practices associated with the development of a customer service map, following on from this specific client example.

Best Practice Customer Service Map Example

Summary:

In summary, measuring your customer experience quality/effectiveness must be guided by a set of effective best practice tools, diagnostic techniques as well as a solid methodology. The use of customer service maps and customer journeys with embedded customer experience journey analytics is an emerging best practice to accomplish this goal. The new tool of a “Quantifiable Customer Journey Map” is being introduced as the latest tool in the toolkit for customer experience architects and professionals to address gaps in previous customer journey map’s framework designs (measurement of customer health). In the practice of developing a customer journey map, the customer’s viewpoint, input and feedback is critical to developing any credibility and value.

By utilizing this new quantifiable customer journey tool and methodology there are vast improvements to be uncovered and implemented that will enable your company to leapfrog the competition and to become the market leader in customer service delivery. Market leading companies like Apple, American Express, Costco, Zappos, Intuit, Southwest Airlines, Wegmans have all adopted this customer first viewpoint and company culture and have benefitted tremendously by doing so. With all of the benefit to be achieved by your company, there is no excuse to not actively work on creating a better customer experience and adopting this new & innovative tool and associated methodology by assessing your customer health via the quantifiable customer journey map.

If your organization is seeking experienced assistance in assessing the state of your customer health including best practices, gaps, top & relevant customer measures and future state program design then give me a call or e-mail me at 518-339-5857 or stevenjeffes@gmail.com.

Lastly, this is just one article of over 50 articles I have written on customer strategy, customer experience, CRM, marketing, product management, competitive intelligence, corporate innovation, change management – all of which I have significant experience in delivering for numerous Fortune 500 companies. In fact, my blog is now followed by nearly 107,000 world-wide and was just named one of the top 100 CRM blogs on the planet by Feedspot, alongside Salesforce.com, Infor, Microsoft, SAS, etc. – Reference this informative site here: https://blog.feedspot.com/crm_blogs/.

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Introduction

When Customer Service Teams Struggle

Pillar 1: Customer Service Leadership Through Performance & Accountability

Pillar 2: Customer Service Leadership Through Coaching & Mentoring

Pillar 3: Service Leadership Through Motivation & Inspiration

Pillar 4: Customer Service Leadership – Creating a Customer First Culture

Pillar 5: Customer Experience Leadership Through Collaboration & TrustShow more lines

Pillar 6: Customer Service Leadership Through Innovation & Continuous Improvement

Leveraging Innovation Management Platforms

Conclusion

HOW I HELP ORGANIZATIONS BUILD HIGH-PERFORMANCE CUSTOMER SERVICE CULTURES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

LET’S START THE CONVERSATION

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Examples of World-Class White Glove Customer Service

The Centurion experience was never simply about a payment card.

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The Real Problem Isn’t AI Customer Service – It’s How You’re Implementing It

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Executive Summary

1. The Untapped Revenue Inside Your Customer Base

2. The Revenue Discovery Gap

3. Customer Advisory Board Revenue Discovery

Real Examples: Revenue Generators That Emerged From CAB Conversations

4. Customer Advisory Board Revenue Discovery Framework

CAB Ground Rules for Productive Discovery

Step 5 – Convert Insights Into Revenue

5. Strategic Benefits of a Customer Advisory Board Beyond Revenue

6. Types of Revenue Opportunities a Customer Advisory Board Reveal

7. Why Customer Advisory Board Insights Beats Internal Brainstorming

8. The Strategic Imperative

9. The Experience Behind This Perspective

10. An Invitation to C‑Suite Leaders

11. What Comes Next

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1. The Familiar Brand Promise:

2. CBOR Definition and Benefits:

3. Hierarchy: Company Mantra, Tagline, Brand Promise and Customer Bill of Rights:

4. Customer Bill of Rights Examples:

6. Customer Bill of Rights Summary

7) Need help in creating your own CBOR?

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A) What is Robotic Process Automation, a simple definition:

B) The customer experience and business benefits of Robotic Process Automation

C) Robotic Process AutomationMarket Growth/Trends:

D) Robotic Process Automation Use Cases & Examples of how RPA Enables Better Customer Service & Experience

E) Top Companies Embracing the Use of Robotic Process Automation:

F) Top Robotic Process Automation Solution Platforms:

G) Top RPA Service and Consulting Companies:

H) RPA Best Practices & How to get started in leveraging RPA:

I) RPA Summary:

J) Robotic Process Automation 911 & where to get immediate RPA assistance and additional insights:

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IOT Revolution Topics covered in this blog:

A) Simple Definitions of IoT and Telematics:

B) IOT Trends and why IoT has become so significant:

C) What has made IoT possible:

D) How does IoT work

E) The benefits of IoT, the IoT Revolution

F) The IOT Revolution: The Balanced Positives and Negatives of IoT

G) The IOT Revolution: Most Popular IoT Architecture Platforms in 2021

H) The IOT Revolution: The 10 Hottest Industrial IoT Platforms Of 2020

I) The IOT Revolution: Most Popular IoT Services Companies for 2021:

J) The IOT Revolution: Example Companies Going all In on IoT

K) The IOT Revolution: Sample IoT Use Cases that illustrate the Customer Experience Benefits

L) The IOT Revolution: Summary

M) The IOT Revolution: Need help getting started in improving your IoT driven Customer Experience?

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Top 5 AI Powered Customer Service Topics Covered

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How & why top companies are inverting their organization charts and putting their own customers in the seat of the Chief Customer Officer while increasing Customer Diversity & Inclusion (D&I).

The top 10 things you will learn by reading this blog on the chief customer officer:

Pillar 5: Customer Experience Leadership Through Collaboration & Trust
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