Transitioning from a Customer Experience (CX) to Business of Experience (BX) Mindset

The one common challenge every company faced in 2020 was the need to fast-track their digital transition initiatives to meet customer expectations. Most organizations were and are still focused on the “technology” initiatives needed to support remote workforces and re-engineering how to provide their products and services via new electronic channels. However, some organizations realized the need to not only solve for the technology challenges but re-imagine how they were going to engage with and meet customer expectations in the “new” normal.

The companies that are continuing to grow and achieve strategic objectives are those that identified that to be successful required more than new investments in technological enhancements but creating new ways to continually deliver value and meet changing customer expectations through new meaningful and personalized experiences.

As a senior digital strategist, I work with companies to define their digital transformation strategies and develop and prioritize an actionable roadmap to achieve desired outcomes. One key objective with these engagements is to not just focus on optimizing current customer touchpoints around products and services but focus on solving for customer needs around a purpose.  This requires changing the organizations mindset.

Why the shift to Business Experience (BX)?

Most organizations think traditionally when asked how they plan to enhance customer experiences (CX) – new front-end technologies (e.g., website, mobile app), channel optimization (e.g., social networks, e-commerce), improving their CRM along with marketing, sales and services functions.  Organizations that are bought into being in the experience business think differently – they understand the need to move beyond the traditional tenets of CX and place an innate focus on consistently delivering the amazing digital experiences their customers expect. Doing this requires re-aligning the entire organization around the delivery of exceptional experiences. These experiences must respond to continually changing customers expectations and needs enabling them to achieve desired outcomes – this is the Business of Experience (BX).

Changing the mindset from CX to BX means thinking beyond the traditional methods of enhancing customer experiences to a holistic view including business and operating models, products and services, employee experiences, delivery models, purpose and value, and innovation.

Challenges of Customer Experience (CX)

Customer experience is crucial in today’s digitally connected world. But for most companies, it’s getting harder to organize their entire business around consistently delivering the great digital experiences their customers expect – in large part because of three major challenges besetting CX as we know it:

Customer Expectations

A lot of companies are still siloed and not cross-functionally aligned impacting the speed in which they respond to changing market conditions and customer demands. Customers now compare their experience with your brand with their experiences with major consumer brand experiences expecting the same level of personalization and interaction.

Table Stakes

Continuous investments and incremental improvements in customer touchpoints and experiences over the past decade have resulted in desired outcomes – more customers, sales, and loyalty – but these investments have become table stakes. Customers have come to expect simple, user-friendly, and intuitive digital experiences, making it more challenging than ever to deliver game-changing market differentiating experiences. 

Your Brand Means More

More than ever, in today’s social and political climate, customers are associating with brands that make them feel part of something bigger and connecting with others around common causes or beliefs. Today’s younger generation will change brands when a company disappointed them due to its words or actions on a social issue. Recognition that a brand’s vision and purpose can play a critical role in its growth is a key element of a BX strategy.

Examples of how companies have become BX leaders:

• Venmo isn’t just a mobile payment app. It offers a universal way for consumers to borrow and lend money to friends and family regardless of bank affiliation and without the hassle of cash – business of frictionless payments.
• Zocdoc didn’t just create an online appointment scheduling service. They provided a better experience for patients to connect with doctors without the roadblocks that prevent them from taking ownership of their health – business of patient empowerment.

Want to transition your company to be an exceptional business experience company? Achieving and maintaining leadership in business experience requires an organization-wide approach – one with a heavy, concerted focus on customer experience, employee experience, data, analytics, operations, and technology. No matter what’s holding your company back, Anexinet has the talent and expertise to lead you along a transformational path to becoming an exceptional business experience company. Contact us today to get started.