You wake up one morning and discover, to your surprise, that at some point overnight, your ears have turned bright blue. You ask your spouse to pinch you and make sure that you’re awake (you are), and your kids confirm that you’re not just seeing things.
You know you’ve been a little stressed lately, and maybe not eating as well as you should have, but this is new. You try a hot shower, but it makes no difference. An ice pack? No, still blue, and now, numb.
The mailman drops by and notices your ears, and tells you all about his sister’s coworker’s mother-in-law’s tennis partner who had the same thing happen and cured it by consuming nothing but herbal tea and tomato soup for a week straight.
Anxious, you turn to the internet, and learn that your blue ears could be a sign of anything from a mild allergic reaction to an extremely rare genetic disorder. Some sites advise waiting it out, others give a list of potential steps and medications, and Amazon is recommending a few books about the tea & soup remedy.
Of course, you could go see a doctor, but part of you remains unconvinced. It’s not like you’re in pain, can’t breathe, or are bedridden. This is nothing you can’t handle on your own… right?
Be it healthcare or customer experience, there are some things you don’t just DIY.
Customer experience is vital to the overall health of your organization. Like your circulation or nerves, it is a complex system that both depends on and influences other systems. And when something goes wrong with it, there will be noticeable symptoms, both subtle and overt.
Sure, you can try treating the symptoms on your own, just like you can try over-the-counter medications and home remedies to affect your health. You can ask others if they’ve experienced the same thing, and try what worked for them. You can read up on customer loyalty and engagement tactics and follow thought leaders on Twitter.
You’re bound to see at least some results from these efforts and will be able to generally keep things alive and moving. However, taking a painkiller for your injury lets you get on with your day, but it doesn’t actually heal you. In other words, symptoms are only the effects of the underlying problem with the system, not the cause. When it’s the system that needs intervention, doing it yourself (DIY) is only going to put you at a disadvantage.
Working with CSP is like having your own on-call doctor.
Objectivity. When you’re too close to the problem, you can end up overly attached to or invested in particular viewpoint. An outside party brings no special interests or agendas and will point out your blind spots and help you see things from a different perspective.
Experience. You may feel like the problems you’re facing are too unique or specialized for someone else to understand. An experienced doctor has seen it all before. They can put your condition in the context of the thousands of patients they’ve already treated. You want someone who can do the same for your business.
Consistency. Every patient who sees a doctor goes through a fairly standardized process of evaluation, diagnosis, treatment, and re-evaluation for signs of progress. Best practices are best practices because they work – no one expects you to figure everything out from scratch on your own. Rather than guess and test your way through solving a dilemma, let our time-proven processes and strategies guide you in the direction of your goals.
Follow-through. A good doctor doesn’t just write you a prescription and wish you good luck – they follow up, ask questions and give you the opportunity to do the same, ensure that you’re following their directions, order more tests as needed, and see you through your treatment. This kind of commitment is essential to long-term health and vitality, be that of a body or a business. Maintaining these relationships of trust and dependability with our clients is just as important to us as the research and strategies we create for them.
Do you want to survive, or to thrive? The right customer experience management partner could make the difference.
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