Your CX Communication Ecosystem

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Steve:
When you get down to it, customer experience is about communication, to and from customers and within the organization itself. So it makes sense that you should put some time into planning your communication strategy.

Molly:
If we're gonna expect our internal teams, for example, to act on data, then we need to make sure that we're communicating those results and communicating our CX program in general to the right people in the right way, that empowers them to be able to act on that information and to be able to act on that feedback.

Steve:
Let's look at planning your communication ecosystem on this episode of The CX Leader Podcast.

Announcer:
The CX Leader Podcast with Steve Walker is produced by Walker, an experience management firm that helps our clients accelerate their XM success. You can find out more at walkerinfo.com.

Steve:
Hello, everyone. I'm Steve Walker, host of The CX Leader Podcast and thank you for listening. It's never been a better time to be a CX leader, and we explore topics and themes to help leaders like you deliver amazing experiences for their customers. For some people, getting excited about a new project means diving right into the fun stuff, working to fix up that cool classic car you just bought, or painting a landscape that inspired you. The temptation is to pick up the wrench or paintbrush and dive in. But even artists and mechanics need a plan, and so do CX experts. And a critical area of planning for customer experience is communications. It's important to know your audience and why you're collecting data in the first place. And according to our experts, planning your communications should be one of the first things that you do. Well, speaking of this episode's expert, I am delighted and really excited to welcome a colleague of mine to the show. Molly Work is associate Vice president in our advisory and managed services group here at Walker and first time on the podcast. So Molly, thank you for being a guest on The CX Leader Podcast.

Molly:
Absolutely, Steve Thanks for having me.

Steve:
How in the world have you not been a guest on the podcast before? And you're like one of the nicest, most knowledgeable, competent people I know in our company, and this is the first time you've been on the podcast.

Molly:
Well, I appreciate that, Steve. Thank you. And I'm not sure, but I'm here today.

Steve:
Well, we're happy to have you. Well, just for our listeners benefit and maybe to provide a little context, just tell us a little bit about your background and and some of the work you've done here at Walker.

Molly:
Yeah, absolutely. I am a consultant here at Walker, but I actually have a background. My master's degree is in speech language pathology. I worked in health care for a little bit and found my way to Walker with an interest in research data and customer experience. And once I got here, just really spoke to me. So I have been here at Walker for about five years now. I've worked with clients across many different industries, in particular the health care industry and healthcare adjacent clients. But again, global clients, local clients across many different industries.

Steve:
Well, I knew you were coming up on your five year anniversary because I think I saw a note about that, but I had forgotten that you're actually your academic background is in communications, so no wonder we got you for this episode.

Molly:
Yeah, absolutely. And happy to be here.

Steve:
Well, you know, I don't know a fraction of what you knew about communications, but I do know that CX at its core is kind of a change management activity. And I do know that from years of leading this organization and working with lots of clients, that during times of change, it's it just seems like you can never communicate well enough. So maybe just to talk about it, you know, maybe set up the framework for our discussion and just give us your take on why communication… I think everybody knows why communication is important. That is… It is important. But maybe set the framework for kind of how you think about communication and why it's so critical to this.

Molly:
Yeah, absolutely. And when you're thinking about your customer experience program, Steve, you really want when you're designing that, you want to think about it as designing with the end in mind. So what are we trying to get out of this? What is our end goal? What is our end objective, particularly with our customer experience program? And so we want to make sure that we're considering the actionability of the feedback that we're getting, all of the data that we're collecting. And so if if we're going to expect our internal teams, for example, to act on data, then we need to make sure that we're communicating those results and communicating our CX program in general to the right people in the right way. That empowers them to be able to act on that information and to be able to act on that feedback. So that's just one reason why communicating, especially from the very beginning, is so important and having that plan in place. And so you are thinking kind of with the end in mind, what is that final objective? And we want to action that data. We want it to go somewhere, we want it to do something right and to have an impact. And in order to have that impact, we need to have a communications plan in place.

Steve:
Yeah, you're right. I mean, it's with the end in mind and you can't do that well enough, I think, in these situations. So, you know and you gave a great example of, you know, if you want the change to show up for the customer, you probably got to get the employees. Right? So we get into that whole CX/EX topic that is very prevalent. When you're planning communications for your CX program, where do you start? So if I'm a new client and I've just said, We're going to do this program and I'm working with Molly, where would you start? What would the CX pro do first?

Molly:
Yeah, absolutely, Steve. The the first thing that you should start with, and I think you even mentioned it at the beginning, I would start with your audience. Think about who your different audiences are. First and foremost, who are the different people that we need to be communicating out to? What is it that those people care about and how are we expecting them to use this data or how are they planning to use this data? And so when we start with those audiences, we can cater that message to those different audiences. That really creates that results driven environment and that actionability. And so that's probably one of the most important things. I've seen a lot of people start with the data first and get this overwhelming report or a large dashboard, and we can't expect that to go out to every single one of our audiences. And for them to be able to use that information the same way the next person is. And so that's kind of the biggest place to start is is with your audiences, identify who your audiences are that you're communicating out to.

Steve:
And what would be a couple of the typical audiences that you might be trying to talk to?

Molly:
Yeah, that's a great question, Steve. At a high level, you actually want to think about it in kind of two different buckets. So the first would be any internal audiences that you need to communicate out to. So, for example, executives or your leadership team would be maybe one audience to start with. Any of your business or functional teams or directors, middle managers, people who are, were actually expecting them to be the ones actioning this data or driving change because of the information that we have. You want to think about your frontline employees, the people who are interacting directly with our customers and what information they need and how they're going to use it. And then finally, all employees. So everybody in the company is only a few steps away from our customers. And so it's important, even if it doesn't seem like they have a direct impact, that we're considering them as part of our communication audiences as well. And then the second big bucket that I definitely don't want to forget about is our external audiences too. And so we want to make sure that we're considering how are we communicating CX back out to our customers. And this is really important to make sure that our customers understand the importance of the feedback that they are providing, that it's going somewhere, that that it's important that they're providing this feedback and that we are taking that into consideration and their feedback is driving change within the organization.

Steve:
Yeah. I want to talk a little bit more about this external group because and you hit on it like we're asking for something from them and they need to have that context. So just give us an example or kind of maybe what are the best in class for communicating with the customers before, after, during the survey, or just really about kind of how you see the cadence through the process of some cycle like say a year or something within an organization? Just what are the types of communications you ought to be doing with with your customers that trying to get good data from?

Molly:
You'll definitely want to be communicating pre communicating before you, you know, send out a survey or a listening post. And so giving customers a heads up is a great idea that this survey is coming, who it's coming from and tying it back to why it's important. And just like you said, Steve, if there are if this is an ongoing program, if you've you've had a customer experience program in the past and you've taken that feedback and you've made changes, communicating back out to your customers, what changes have been made because of their feedback can go so far in providing that motivation to our customers to continue to provide that really valuable feedback. It can also help increase response rates for our customers because they know, Hey, when I respond, this is going to go somewhere. You can even do that in your survey invites. So if you've got an email based invite that's going out to put a line in there about the importance of their feedback and how this has impacted the company in the past. Another great way to follow up with our customers is what we call closed loop follow-up. But following up with our customers, maybe if they had a poor experience that we're reaching out to them directly to have those conversations with them. And that also lets them know, Hey, someone was listening to me when I provided this feedback and and they reached out and they're going to do something about that. And like in all places, I think it's a good opportunity to put ourselves in our customer's shoes. You know, if you've ever had a poor customer experience and filled out a survey and had a negative experience and someone calls you and says, hey, you know, I want to talk about this, I heard that this this experience didn't go the best for you. That means a lot that someone's taking the time to reach back out to you. And that says a lot and, you know, motivates you to continue providing that that really valuable feedback.

Steve:
I want to drill down on this a little bit. I think you've given a really great framework for how we ought to think about it, and I think it's a place where we as CX pros generally have some ways that we could really enhance this. So, you know, we we do the good preview communication to get them ready for it. I think you and I both are familiar. We have a long standing client at Walker that gets almost 100% participation on their surveys. Now, people go, what, 100%? Well, if you saw the virtuous cycle that they have gone through over 20 plus years to condition their customers for this, it really has become a part of the way they do business with their key clients. And it really is a virtuous cycle. You know, that you're collecting the information, you're thanking them for it. You're giving them the context of why it happened. Then you're taking action. You're communicating that back. For sure you need to close the loop if there's some issue. But then even if there isn't an issue, some sort of broad communication about the actions that you're taking is also sort of setting the expectations for what the experience ought to look like for for every customer. And this is really about how you make your company more customer focused and kind of build that into the culture. So I hope I wasn't too far off on that summary, but I just think that that's what I think we can really help our clients do.

Molly:
Absolutely, Steve. Absolutely. And I think one thing to realize is, is the impact and one of the great impacts that it can have on like what you were saying, getting getting more feedback from our customers, getting broader feedback, increasing those response rates. And it's a strategy. It's, it's a it's the long game. There's no, you know, quick and easy way to turn that around. But to commit to this and have a strategy and have a communications plan in place, in the long run, you will see those benefits. You will see those customers coming back and providing that feedback that they have. Again, because they know this is going somewhere. This is making what I'm saying is making an impact.

Steve:
Yeah, actually, you just said something. This is a long game strategy. I was just reading some stuff over the weekend from Warren Buffett and they asked him one time, what's the what's the right time to sell a stock? And he says, "never". Because he is He's the ultimate long term investor. You know that. And and he's got there's incredible story. I guess I'm going off on a tangent here, but I'll bring it back. But it reinforces the concept of being long. He bought Coca-Cola like in the 80s and he basically makes more in dividends each year from his original investment that he made in Coke 30, 30 or 40 years ago. That is the ultimate long game. He's getting paid for that purchase of that stock every single year. And and I think that I'm trying to make this analogy back because you said it's a long game. And and we use that example of the client that really has invested in this over 20 years and they've built these incredibly strong connections where they get really good feedback and they're able to action it.

Steve:
My guest on the podcast this week is Molly Work. She's an associate vice president here at our Advisory and Managed Services group, and she has given us a MBA in how you should put your communication program together as a part of your overall CX strategy. I want to talk a little bit maybe back to the how the internal and the external work together. So you kind of laid out two two paths there of how we communicate and what we do. How do those two things work together or how do you how do you bring them together?

Molly:
So and I think we talked about this a little bit at the beginning, but when we think about those internal communications, again, going back to the actionability of the data and thinking about what is our our objective here, and it really is to make that customer experience overall better, We want to improve that customer experience. And so it ties directly back to that experience that the customer is having. And so having that communication in place for the internal teams is really critical in kind of making that a results driven program so that we can make improvements, make change and make customer experience a focus. And so in turn, that directly impacts our our external customers. And so it's also important from from an external standpoint that we're communicating this back out to the customer so that they can see that results driven program, They can see that actionability, which will in turn motivate them to provide even more robust and valuable feedback that we're getting. And and it's just a cycle to continue feeding into that customer experience program that is just going to enhance the customer experience overall for the company.

Steve:
Have you ever seen any occasions where the internal folks don't accept that the external feedback is valid?

Molly:
Yes, we have seen that and I've also seen the opposite where we end up pulling in that customer experience and it's really eye opening too, for that organization to to see on both sides of the fence. I've seen companies who have hunches and have heard things internally and get this customer experience feedback, and it really validates what they've been hearing so that now now they know and they are empowered internally to drive these improvement initiatives forward. I've also seen on the flip side where, you know, we think everything's great and everything's going well or we think things are one way and we hear that direct feedback from our customers and it changes our perspective and it helps our strategy to figure out, okay, maybe we do need to focus in a different area. Maybe we do need to shift some of our priorities because this is what we're hearing directly from our customers. So regardless, it's it's so valuable to get that information and tie it back in. But I've seen it go several different ways.

Steve:
You know, I'm just listening to you talk. I'm thinking about a recent experience I had where what's actually been ongoing now, but they don't really know what kind of business that I'm in. And I have periodically said, you know, you don't really ask for my feedback, but I'm going to give you some here anyway. And they don't they don't get it. They don't they have no method to kind of collect it. And then even when I say it, they don't. You know, again, that's kind of if you're not willing to go do this kind of work, then you probably are going to have situations like that. So it's it really is incumbent particularly we're talking to our clients that have a focus on customer experience, but you really got to make sure that you use this stuff, right?

Molly:
Yeah. And actually something you said, Steve, kind of made me think too. It it goes back to, to that customer experience perspective from the customers when they're providing that feedback. If you do have that communications plan in place externally as well, and you are communicating back out that, hey, these are the improvement initiatives that that we're making, then then you get less of that exactly what you were feeling. Hey, I try to provide my feedback and looks like no one cared. No one, no one did anything with it. And so it really helps validate to your customers kind of their importance. We care about you, we care about your voice, and we're listening. We're not just kind of putting on a front to say, Hey, provide us your feedback. It will go somewhere, but we're proving ourselves out.

Steve:
Yeah, no, that's a really you said it much more eloquently than I did because yeah, when you when you do have this kind of program and it really is a part of the culture of the organization that comes through to clients, it comes through to customers, and it comes through to the employees, too, who know that this is important.

Molly:
Yeah, absolutely.

Steve:
Molly really great content today, but can you give us just a couple of other things to consider when you're crafting a message based on what the audience that you're trying to reach is?

Molly:
Yeah, absolutely. And you went back to my starting point, Steve So we want to go through each audience member and I think before we even get down to, okay, what, what data do they need? What message do they need? The first thing I want you to think about is what What do they care about? What do they want to know? And establish that first for each of your different audience levels because that will help drive what data they need in order to complete their role, in order to do the task that they are assigned to do. And again, that will help drive the message that you're giving them, the data that you're giving them to make it very specific to that audience type. Another thing that I want to bring up is also just the importance of tying back these messages, especially, I think once we start to get into, Hey, we've got data, we're passing out data and reports that it's so important to continue tying back any CX communication, especially internally, to the company's overall strategy, the company's brand and culture. It's really important to give them and remind them about the why. Why is this important? Why why is this meaningful throughout the organization and doing those things, tying it back to the overall company strategy, tying it into your brand and your culture can can really help with some of those things. And so I think those are the few things to keep in mind when you are crafting out that message, especially when you're thinking about the different audience types.

Steve:
Are there specific groups inside of your organization that you should reach out to, like you just mentioned, make sure it connects with the brand? Is that a best practice?

Molly:
Yeah, absolutely. And again, going back to when you're thinking about your audience types, thinking about all of the different audience types, and I think even thinking about how some of that messaging and data can cascade upon or build upon another. And so when you think about a leadership team, for example, what do they care about? What message do we want to give to them? Well, they probably care about high level metrics. They probably care about the general direction the company's going, but they also probably care about, well, what are we doing about this? And where am I needed to lean in and help support? What do you need from me? And so talking first to your business teams, your functional teams who are actioning this data and driving the improvements, getting that information from them and building it into that messaging for your executive team and for your leadership automatically hits those questions that they're probably wondering anyways that they probably care about in the first place. And so that's just another component is to think about when you are communicating to these different audiences how that messaging can help build on one another in order to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time.

Steve:
Beautiful. That's a great thought that people should take with it. It's the right message, the right people in the right way and right time. Molly Work, we have reached that point in the podcast where I ask every guest to give their take home value. This could be a restatement of something you've already covered or a new concept altogether. But the concept here, the idea is that we give our CX pros something very actionable that they can take back and immediately have a positive impact on sort of their communication strategy with their individual programs. So Molly, work take home value from the podcast today.

Molly:
Well, Steve, besides just creating a communication plan in the first place, I would probably have to say consider your audience first. Think about your audience, what they care about, and craft your message and your communication plan from there. This can really help create buy in across the organization. It'll empower your employees to act on the data that they're getting and really promote a results driven program for you.

Steve:
Molly Work is my friend and colleague here at Walker. She's an associate vice president and our advisory and managed services group here at Walker. Molly, thank you for being such a great guest on The CX Leader Podcast today.

Molly:
Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Steve.

Steve:
And if anybody would want to continue the conversation, you're you're on LinkedIn, right?

Molly:
I am on LinkedIn.

Steve:
And I think we they can find you on our website too. If you go to our people and look for the very aptly named Molly Work. And if you want to hear about anything else you heard on this program or talk about it, anything Walker can do for you, please feel free to get in touch with me. Email me here at podcast@walkerinfo.com. Remember to give The CX Leader Podcast a rating through your podcast service and give us a review. Your feedback will help us improve the show and deliver the best possible value to you, our Listener. Check out our website cxleaderpodcast.com. To subscribe to the show, find all our previous episodes, podcast series and contact information so you can let us know how we're doing. The CX Leader Podcast is a production of Walker. We're an experience management firm that helps companies accelerate their XM success. You can read more about us at walkerinfo.com. Thank you for listening and remember, it's a great time to be a CX leader. So go out there and improve your communication strategy and plan around your CX program. Thanks for listening today and we'll see you again next time.

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