Previously, we described the first three (of five) dimensions that form the customer experience: Touchpoints; Pathways, and Delivery.
This week, we will explore the fourth dimension: Ecosystem.
Ecosystem is the values and structure of an organization that drives how they do things and why, but also includes the way the organization is perceived and experienced by their customers.
Some of the most obvious examples of Ecosystem are:
- Corporate culture
- IT infrastructure
- Supply chain
- Corporate structure
- Strategic partners
Some less obvious examples of Ecosystem include:
- Brand perception in the market
- Internal alignment
- Hiring practices, reward systems, and HR policies
- What your employees value
- Definition of the customer across departments
Every organization’s Ecosystem is unique, reflecting their character, culture, and values. Different people, interactions, rituals, and tones must be well understood and respected for customer experience excellence to thrive. The earlier organizations understand and respect their Ecosystem, the faster and better their customer experience results will be. Therefore, organizations should thoroughly figure out their Customer Experience Ecosystem at the outset of their business’ strategic planning process, integrate it throughout their customer experience strategy, and ensure that it is consistently applied to be most effective.
There are 4 requisites to a successful Ecosystem:
1. Understand Your Company’s Ecosystem
Take inventory of your organization’s value across the entire organization, internally and externally. What is the real nature of your organization? What do your employees value? Is there a gap between what management believes and what your employees perceive to be your culture? How are you perceived by your customers?
2. Organize Your Organization’s Ecosystem Around Your Customers
Organizational hierarchy should be ordered with customers at the top, followed by employees, suppliers, distributors, partners, investors, then competitors. This hierarchy of needs should prevail through all your activities so that everyone’s thinking and actions align towards your customer.
3. Include Customer Experience in Everything Everyone Does
Provide customer experience context for all your organization’s activities, roles, and decision-making of all kinds. By attaching customer stories and comments to everything in your organization, your Ecosystem will become intrinsically tied to your customers’ experience.
4. Make Customer Experience Part of Your Organization’s DNA
Tie Customer Experience directly to both advancement and hiring criteria. This will ensure a strong, customer-centric Ecosystem for decades to come. When you make it central to your employees’ thinking and doing, your Ecosystem will more likely develop deep roots within your company.
Understanding, respecting, implementing, and maintaining your Ecosystem is a key success factor for organizations. As daunting as it may initially appear, it is certainly feasible, and will be exciting and fulfilling. The benefits are vast, and it will differentiate your organization from the competition, save you a lot of money, ensure goodwill, and accelerate the positives of all your customer experience management efforts.
Our next article will focus on the heartbeat of Customer Experience, Empathy.
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About the Author
James Grieve is a Certified Management Consultant and partner in Nucleus Strategies, a Kelowna-based consulting firm that specializes in working with businesses in a variety of industries to design great service experiences that delight customers and improve business performance. He can be reached at 778.214.6010, or james@nucleus-strategies.com.
A version of this post was first published here.
