A practical guide in customer experience

1. Customer Experience: Lessons
From The Space Jump
Dr. Oyewole O. Sarumi

3.  Have a goal. Define it. Make sure
everyone knows the goal.
Communicate it. Live it. Breathe it.
You know what the goal is: deliver the
best end-to-end customer experience,
better than your competition.

4.  Focus. Intense focus. Everything
you do is in the interest of achieving
that goal. Don't just say you're
customer-focused. Show it. In the way
you treat your employees, treat your
customers, design your products, lead
your business, hire people, etc.

5.  Relentless, never-ending training. If
you want your employees to be
successful, if you want them to know
what to do when they encounter specific
situations with customers, then teach
them how to handle those situations.
Role play. Make sure employees know
your products well. And as the business
changes and evolves, so must the
training.

6.  Careful, detailed preparation. This
goes hand in hand with training, to
some degree. The more prepared
your employees are, the better they'll
be able to handle any situations
thrown their way. Have a plan, a
roadmap. The more you plan, the
better the experience will likely be.

7.  Contingency planning. Have a plan
for when things don't go as expected.

8.  Take a test jump. Or two. Test your
products for quality and usability. With
your customers. Before the products
go to market.

9.  Solid, accurate data. The importance of
good data, the right data, at your
fingertips is critical to making decisions
that are right for your customers. Having
that data at the right time allows you to
make smart decisions in the moment.
Making sure everyone, across channels
and functional teams, has the same data
makes for a much better experience.

10.  Research is extremely helpful. Do
your homework. Know your
customers.

11.  Timing. Ensuring that the right data is
in the right hands at the right time is
essential to delivering a great
customer experience. And to making
that jump.

12.  Abort when conditions aren't right.
You know if it's the right time to
release a product. You know if you're
using the right approach to designing
the customer experience. If it doesn't
work for your customers, abort and
start over. Find a better time, a better
way.

13.  The right equipment. Of course,
you'll need the right tools to facilitate
getting that data where it needs to go
and to delivering that great
experience. And employees will need
the right tools to do their jobs.

14.  Patience. When all else fails,
patience truly is a virtue. And an
important one. Working with
customers can be as challenging as
waiting for the right wind conditions!
Take a deep breath and do the right
thing.

15.  Teamwork. Your employees must
work as a team toward a common
goal. They must support each other in
their efforts to support the customer.
Make sure they are all talking to each
other.

16.  Supporting staff. Those unsung
heroes, the ones that make things
happen behind the scenes, are critical
to the success of any mission.

17.  Know your space. Understand the
marketplace, your competitors, the
needs of prospects and customers.
Everything going on around you.

18.  Risks and rewards. Take risks. Do
what it takes to set yourself apart from
the competition. And remember: the
greater the risk, the greater the
reward.

19.  Instill confidence. Leaders instill
confidence in their employees, which in
turn, through the experiences they
deliver, cause customers to gain
confidence in the brand/organization.
There is no trust without confidence, and
trust is the precursor to loyalty and
engagement. Felix says, "I will land
safely" with such conviction that I have
no doubt he will.

20.  Be passionate! You should watch some
of the videos about this mission; you will
see just how passionate Felix is about
this jump and about being the best of the
best. Stoke the passion in your
employees. Hire the right employees, the
ones who are passionate about your
brand.
 The air is where I am at home. -Felix
Baumgartner

21.  Push the limits. Don't be happy with
the status quo. If your business is
stagnant, if your customers are not
happy, it's time to take a different
approach. Innovate.

22.  Do the unexpected. Everyone loves
the little unexpected extras. Make
them part of your customer
experience.

23.  Learn from others who've gone before you.
Take what's been done before and do it better.
Felix is not the first person to make a jump like
this. If he is successful, though, he will be the first
person to make the jump at this height/distance,
and he will break four world records. Way back in
1960, Joseph Kittinger made the jump from
102,800 feet. (Felix will jump at 120,000 feet, or
23 miles!) Kittinger is still the world record holder.
For a few more days. He is part of Team Red Bull
Stratos and has been advising Felix on this jump.

24.  Communication. Joseph Kittinger is
Felix's biggest supporter and will be the
only person talking to him by radio
during the jump. This communication is
likely critical for a lot of reasons, not the
least of which is to keep him calm and
focused. I don't think any of us can
question the importance of
communication with both customers and
employees.

25.  Measure your vital signs. Keep track
of the health of the organization at all
times. Find your metrics and track
them closely. Don't focus on the
score; focus on the experience. But
pay attention to what your vitals are
telling you.

26. Sometimes You Have To
Take A Leap Of Faith.
 Sometimes you have to take a leap of
faith. I prefer the tried and true method,
but occasionally you just need to make
things happen without waiting for
someone to give you permission or
without the data to support what you
want to do. Sometimes you truly can
anticipate the needs of your customers.
And sometimes, if you just let your
employees do what needs to be done,
great experiences can happen.

27. It's A Journey.
 It's a journey. The jump has been
several years in the making. The actual
trip will be much faster! And yes, the
customer experience is a journey, as
well. It's years in the making, and it's
constantly evolving. So will space travel.
Not only will this jump be a world record
breaking attempt, it will also provide
research that will be used for years to
come to develop space suits, space
travel, etc.

28. Conclusion
 And finally, remember this. While the
climb to the top (or to the edge of
space) might be a long journey,
freefalling back down happens much
faster! Enjoy the journey! Make it a
good one.
 And don't get too close to the edge...
while Felix might be up for the freefall,
I know your organization is not!

29.  http://cxjourney.blogspot.ro/2012/
10/customer-experience-lessons-
from-space.html
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