October 1^st. marks CX Day, an annual global celebration by the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) of companies creating great experiences for their customers and the people who work tirelessly to enhance interactions and optimize touchpoints day-in and day-out.

The theme for 2024 is ‘Good CX delivers better outcomes for customers, employees, and their organizations’, and if that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the exact same theme from last year.

Why repeat it?

According to CXPA research, CX professionals’ top challenge continues to be making the case that CX delivers valuable results. A common issue we see in organizations that face this challenge is that CEOs don’t prioritize customers. When you consider CEOs are rewarded for business results and not for creating better customer experiences, the disconnect makes sense.

But when you look at the bigger picture, companies can’t grow organically without growing and retaining customers. Bad customer experiences make things even more difficult as they often result in costs through re-work or customer service, refunds, and more.

Last year the Experience Management Institute estimated that a global $3.1 trillion was at risk from poor experiences. This year? That number has risen to $3.7 trillion. With so much potential revenue at risk, businesses can’t afford to have CX programs underfunded and understaffed.

Proof of business impact is paramount for CX teams to secure CEO and senior leadership support for customer experience programs, because if you don’t connect your work to their outcomes, they won’t invest.

So, this CX Day we’d like to share some tips & resources on how you can better connect CX and executive-relevant outcomes, as well as real-life examples of dynamic customers raising the bar on what great customer and employee experiences look like.

Best practices for measuring customer experience ROI

Calculating the ROI of customer experience initiatives has many benefits. Besides showing the value created for the business, assessing ROI can also help secure investments, prioritize efforts, demonstrate accountability, and build cross-functional alignment.

Here are five tips to get started:

Start with clear goals. Before looking at metrics and data, define what you want to achieve with your CX program. Are you focused on increasing revenue or reducing costs? Consider which specific metrics you want to impact on. Assess the potential value your organization might be losing due to poor customer experience. This will help you see where there are the biggest opportunities for improvement. By setting clear objectives from the beginning, you can shape your approach to meet those goals effectively.

Use the right metrics. To prove that your customer experience efforts are adding value, it's important to identify and track relevant business metrics. Focus on business KPIs that reflect value for your organization and are directly impacted by customer experiences. Use these metrics to help calculate your ROI.

Prioritize actionable insights. To drive tangible value, avoid getting bogged down in endless analysis. Leverage your insights to pinpoint opportunities for improvement. Collaborate with stakeholders across the organization to implement targeted changes. Continuously assess the impact of these changes on predefined metrics to refine your approach and maximize effectiveness over time.

Use a control group. By implementing your initiative with a well-defined control group, you can isolate the effects of specific customer experience modifications on the desired outcomes. This approach strengthens the credibility of your business case for customer experience initiatives and enables you to measure the ROI more accurately.

Craft a compelling ROI narrative. When seeking approval for a customer experience initiative or explaining the impact of program-driven actions, communicating the ROI in a way that resonates with stakeholders and links your efforts to measurable outcomes is crucial. By maximizing your storytelling, CX teams can enhance their credibility and foster informed decision-making, all while securing buy-in from stakeholders for continued program support.

We’re passionate about improving customer experiences, and hope you are too. Here are some additional resources for a deeper dive on experience management & value.

We can also help you to learn about:

·        Understanding customer experience ROI

·        What happens after a bad experience

·        Continuously manage Experience Management value with Realize Competency

·        Balancing value to your customers, employees, and business

·        The Experience Management Handbook

·        Celebrating experience management

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Dogma C3X is an Intelligent Business Consulting Platform inspired by the 3Cs industry model, which offers a strategic look at the pillars that every company needs for success: Customers – Company – Competitors. "Intelligent" because by using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) it can collect, process, and analyze the growing tsunami of data (structured and unstructured) related to the 3Cs, which is incredibly valuable. Only by strengthening, positioning, and integrating these three pillars (Customers - Company - Competitors) you will be able to build a sustainable competitive advantage.