Understanding your customers, sharing insights across the organization, and delivering quick wins to improve service delivery are how many effective customer experience (CX) teams start. This foundational work, as discussed in previous blogs in this series, is known as working “IN the business.” However, building and advancing a fully developed CX capability also requires focusing on “ON the business” efforts.
Building a robust CX capability is not a one-time effort but an ongoing process. At Technical Assent, we recognize this need and have developed a CX capability model and assessment tool to help organizations systematically advance CX initiatives, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and customer-centricity.
One of six components, Managing Organizational Performance, integrates strategic and performance planning with metrics and analytics to track and assess the organization's CX performance and ensure accountability for customer outcomes. Cohesive, effective, performance management ensures aligned agility in continuously improving customer experiences.
Key Elements to Managing Organizational Performance
To ensure consistent organizational performance and drive long-term improvement, we identified three key factors:
- Goals, measures, tools, and processes: Define your CX goals, customer outcomes, and associated metrics. Then, implement the necessary tools and processes to track progress, ensure alignment with customer expectations, and deliver meaningful experiences.
- Strategic planning: Integrate CX into your strategic planning to ensure that customer-centric initiatives are central to your long-term objectives. This approach drives sustainable value and enhances responsiveness to changing customer preferences.
- Performance plans and ratings: Integrate CX goals into performance plans and ratings for employees at all levels to incentivize a customer-focused mindset and align employee expectations with customer experience.
Best Practices for Managing Organizational Performance
We’ve observed several best practices from government and industry for effectively managing and improving organizational performance:
- Measure smartly: Start with one to three key ‘North Star’ CX metrics that apply across your agency’s programs and services. Use analytics tools to evaluate these and other CX metrics, enabling data-driven decisions and demonstrating a clear Return on Investment (ROI). While these metrics provide agency-wide alignment, it’s also important to consider how you can empower individual organizational units to analyze and act on their own CX data independently.
- Align to the bigger picture: Develop a structured CX strategy with clear goals, timelines, and accountability. Ensure they can roll up to at least one broader organizational strategic goal. Benchmark your progress against CX leaders across industry and government annually to adapt and refine your strategic plans.
- Cascade accountability: Incorporate CX goals and metrics into performance plans for leaders, supervisors, and other keyroles, linking them to specific organizational outcomes.
Benefits of Managing Organizational Performance
By intentionally and actively managing organizational performance, you’ll align the people, processes, infrastructure, and technology necessary to fulfill your CX mission and deliver measurable, meaningful outcomes and impacts. Your organization can achieve improved unity of effort and realize essential productivity improvements.
Maturing your CX capabilities is no small feat. It requires both commitment and financial resources. Read more in our final blog of the series on Securing CX Investment.
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