Change Management For Customer Experience

Not a lot of businesses are recognizing the power of Change Management as a vehicle for enhancing customer experience efforts. Here's how to unlock the power of change management principles in the context of CX. 🎯 Understanding Customer Needs Before initiating any change, you must have a deep understanding of what your customers really want. Utilize data analytics, behavioral data, operational and financial data, customer interviews, surveys, market dynamics, competitive information, and other signals to assess and understand needs. 🤝 Aligning Objectives Leadership Alignment: Ensure that your leadership is onboard and committed to customer experience improvement. Stakeholder Involvement: Involve the frontline employees who interact with customers daily to contribute to the decision-making process. 🗓️ Planning Identify Key Changes: Prioritize which areas require change based on customer feedback and business metrics. Set Targets: Establish measurable KPIs to gauge the success of the changes you plan to implement. These should be business- and customer-driven metrics. Don't make this a metric like "increase OSAT from X to Y." 📣 Communication Internal Communication: Clearly communicate the why and the how to all internal stakeholders. This should include executives, directly impacted employees, and the broader line of business. Tailor it to the stakeholder. Customer Communication: Be transparent with customers about what changes to expect and how they will benefit. Keep them up to date on progress. 🛠️ Implementation Pilot Testing: Conduct a small-scale test of the changes to assess their effectiveness. Feedback Loop: Gather continuous feedback from customers and employees throughout the implementation process. 📊 Evaluation and Adaptation Assess Impact: Examine metrics regularly to determine whether the changes are having the intended impact. Iterate: Use data-driven insights to make necessary adjustments. 🚀 Sustaining Changes Training: Continuously train your team to adapt to new changes. Feedback Mechanisms: Keep the dialogue open with customers and employees for sustainable improvements. 👩💻 Leveraging Technology 👨💻 Data Analytics: Use analytics to pinpoint improvement areas. Communication Platforms: Use tools like Slack or Teams for internal communication. Automation: Implement bots for routine tasks. CRM Systems: Manage customer relationships digitally to gain insights. 💡 Involve Employees Effectively Employees are the face of your customer service. Include them in planning, provide training opportunities, establish regular feedback forums, and reward those who contribute to customer experience improvements. Have you applied change management principles to enhance the customer experience in your organization? What worked for you? What didn't work for you? #ChangeManagement #CustomerExperience #Leadership #DataAnalytics #EmployeeEngagement #Technology

They were hemorrhaging money on digital tools their managers refused to use. The situation: A retail giant in the diamond industry with post-COVID digital sales tools sitting unused. Store managers resisting change. Market volatility crushing performance. Here's what every other company does: More training on features. Explaining benefits harder. Pushing adoption metrics. Here's what my client did instead: They ignored the technology completely. Instead, they trained 200+ managers on something nobody else was teaching; how to fall in love with change itself. For 8 months, we didn't focus on the digital tools once. We taught them Change Enthusiasm®, how to see disruption as opportunity, resistance as data, and overwhelm as information. We certified managers in emotional processing, not technical skills. The results were staggering: → 30% increase in digital adoption (without a single tech training session) →  2X ROI boost for those who embraced the mindset →  25% sales uplift in stores with certified managers →  96% of participants improved business outcomes Here's the breakthrough insight: People don't resist technology. They resist change. Fix the relationship with change, and adoption becomes automatic. While competitors were fighting symptoms, this company cured the disease. The secret wasn't better technology training, it was better humans. When managers learned to thrive through change, they stopped seeing digital tools as threats and started seeing them as allies. Most companies are solving the wrong problem. They're trying to make people adopt technology. We help people embrace transformation. The results speak for themselves. What would happen if you stopped training on tools and started training on change? ♻️ Share if you believe the future belongs to change-ready organizations 🔔 Follow for insights on making transformation inevitable, not optional

#CustomerExperience leaders need to split their strategies into deliberate bottom-up and top-down approaches. Many get the bottom-up right, but they struggle with the top-down. Bottom-up strategies focus on improving customer-centric employee behaviors at scale. These approaches include #CX or empathy training for front-line workers, using Voice of Customer feedback to set touchpoint expectations based on customer feedback, and building customer-centric KPIs into individual performance appraisals. But where many CX leaders struggle is often with engaging senior leaders to influence their customer-centric behaviors. It's difficult to influence C-suite behavior, but if you're expected to improve customer-centric culture in the organization, then you cannot avoid this. Top-down strategies start with showing senior leaders how customer satisfaction impacts growth, retention, margin, and lifetime value. It also includes improving CX and VoC reporting to provide more recommendations and actions, not just findings and data. Having discussions with leaders about the importance of financial and non-financial rewards for customer-centric behaviors is another tool in the top-down toolkit. And using personas and journey maps is a vital way to convert customer and touchpoint data into a compelling story of necessary change. Don't rely on dashboards and reports to do the job of top-down CX engagement. Don't count on a couple of positive customer-centric comments from leaders as a sign of meaningful, irreversible support. And do not assume that the fact your CX job exists is evidence of senior leaders' commitment to customer experience. Part of the job for a successful CX leader is to constantly prove the value of customer-centric strategies, influence senior leader priorities, and arm decision-makers with the insight they need to make customer-centric decisions. Don't just empower your frontline workers and assume the job is done. If you aren't building a consistent dialog with executives, you're not only missing an opportunity to make the most significant customer impact but also seeding future problems that can lead to declining support, budget, and resources for customer experience initiatives. Take a comment today to identify or define your top-down and bottom-up CX strategies for 2024. If there's an imbalance, solving that now can lead to better outcomes by the end of this year.

Bad customer experience (CX) is costly. But worse than the cost is the damage it can do to your business. We’ve all seen the fallout from poor customer interactions—lost sales, negative reviews, and damaged reputations. That’s why it’s crucial to prioritize and enhance CX. Here are key strategies to implement: ➡ Map the Customer Journey: Each click and interaction shapes their perception. Create detailed personas to uncover needs, behaviors, and pain points. ➡ Process Inventory: Identify inefficiencies, like delayed shipping, by mapping the customer journey and tracing issues back to their roots. ➡ Ethnographic Research: Study customers in their natural settings to gain insights data alone can't capture. Align strategies with genuine customer expectations. ➡ Cultivate a Customer-Centric Culture: Follow Tesla’s lead—ensure every employee is driven to enhance CX, fostering continuous feedback and adaptation. ➡ Leverage Data: Use a 360-degree view of each customer to predict needs, personalize interactions, and exceed expectations. Don’t cut corners when it comes to improving CX. Focus on these strategies to drive loyalty and revenue. It’s worth it.

Strong communication saved me $500K in ARR. Sounds dramatic? Maybe. But it’s true. A few roles ago, I had to oversee the deprecation of a product used by our smaller customers. We had a new and improved solution ready to go—but with a higher price tag and added complexity that many customers didn’t want (or need). Cue potential churn panic. My job? Prevent a mass exodus. Here’s how strong, proactive communication helped us keep 70% of our customers and over $500K in ARR 👇 The Playbook: ✅ Personalized Emails – No generic “we’re sunsetting this product” nonsense. We crafted targeted, transparent messages explaining the why, the what, and the when—plus clear options. ✅ Webinar with FAQs – We didn’t just announce change; we walked them through it. A live session let customers hear the plan firsthand and get their biggest questions answered. ✅ 1:1 Calls – High-touch for those who needed it. No one felt abandoned in the process. ✅ Migration & Exit Options – We gave customers choices, not ultimatums. Some migrated, some left (on good terms), and we even helped a few transition to alternative solutions. ✅ Consistent Updates – No surprises. Regular check-ins gave customers control over the transition. ✅ Post-Migration Support – Because the customer experience doesn’t stop after the switch. We made sure they were set up for success. The Outcome? 💰 500K ARR saved 🙌 ~70% retention 🤝 Stronger customer trust Here’s the lesson: Communication can be more powerful than the product changes themselves. Customers don’t just need a new tool—they need clarity, support, and a sense of control. SaaS is always changing. Sometimes all you have is communication. Use it wisely. _________________ 📣 If you liked my post, you’ll love my newsletter. Every week I share learnings, advice and strategies from my experience going from CSM to CCO. Join 12k+ subscribers of The Journey and turn insights into action. Sign up on my profile.

70% of transformations stumble. Not on technology. Not on strategy. But on five critical hurdles that few see coming. Here's what really blocks transformation And how successful leaders overcome them: 1. The Comfort Zone Barrier When uncertainty feels threatening: - Create psychological safety - Build small wins early - Make change feel achievable 2. The Communication Gap When clarity matters most: - Over-communicate purpose - Share progress consistently - Make impact visible 3. The Middle Management Freeze When pressure comes from all sides: - Equip them with tools - Provide clear direction - Enable decision-making 4. The Initiative Fatigue When teams feel overwhelmed: - Focus on vital few priorities - Celebrate small victories - Build momentum gradually 5. The Leadership Misalignment When direction isn't clear: - Align on core objectives - Show unified commitment - Lead by example Obstacles don't block your path during transformation. They are your path to better solutions. Each one makes transformation stronger, and more achievable. Leading through transformation challenges? DM me "TRANSFORM" to discuss strategic solutions.

We don’t resist change. We resist not knowing where we’ll land. Most pushback is rational. We hold on to what’s worked because the next step isn’t clear. If we don’t see the logic, If it doesn’t feel safe to try we stall. Every time. The job isn’t to “manage resistance.” It’s to de-risk what’s ahead. Here are 7 strategies that have helped my teams (and me) move through change faster: 1. Model it first → If leaders don’t go first, nothing moves. → We follow behavior, not slide decks. 2. Share the why, not just the timeline → Don’t wait for the perfect plan. → Share what’s changing, what’s at stake, and what we’re betting on. 3. Involve the people closest to the work → Real alignment doesn’t come from top-down decisions. → It comes from early input. 4. Make the first step feel doable → We don’t need the full blueprint. → Just a clear first move we can act on with confidence. 5. Train for what’s different → Belief ≠ readiness. → We resist when we don’t feel equipped. 6. Name what’s really going on → Resistance often hides fear or confusion. → Ask early. Ask directly. Don’t let it build. 7. Show it’s working and work hard on what’s not → Small wins build trust. → But trust grows faster when we’re honest about what still needs fixing. Most of us try to scale with complexity. But the real unlock? We simplify. That’s how we move forward - together. * * * I talk about the real mechanics of growth, data, and execution. If that’s what you care about, let’s connect.

I can't begin to tell you how often I get a call during which the person I'm speaking with says something to the extent of, "I've been running our Voice of the Customer surveys for years and nothing's getting better in those customer relationships." This, of course always results in me asking how they've worked toward changing their people, process and technologies to meet their customers at or above their expectations based on what they learned in that feedback? Surprisingly, the answer is almost always the same, "what do you mean?" Too many CX teams have been lead down the primrose path of overcommitting technology solutions as the magic silver bullet cure-all for all issues with their customers and do not put anywhere enough emphasis on the need to adapt and change, and to meet their customers, where they are, in their respective journeys at those defining moments of service. Indeed, I tell them that an overreliance on tech as that silver bullet is very much the same as an overweight person blaming their bathroom scale for their unhealthy condition. It's not the scale's fault they may overeat and perhaps get too little exercise, and until this changes, the scale won't report anything more optimistic. The moral of this short story is obvious. CX improvement may be powered by the customer's voice, but it is always a change management function. If we do not prepare to change our ways and continue to evolve our organization and how we do what it is we do, we risk not meeting our customers when and where they are looking for us and will indeed continue to disappoint. Ignoring the most basic need for adaptive change is akin to the famous Albert Einstein quote about his definition of insanity: doing the same things the same ways you always have but looking for a different (and presumably better) outcome. The odds, my friends, are against. We need to be willing to change, and in many ways, burn the boats from our past and free ourselves to find new and innovative ways to serve our customers when, where and how it matters to them. Until we do this and fully commit to transformative changes to practically every aspect of our business, we are truly only paying lip service to our customer focus and the experiences we create. It's a gigantic, missed opportunity for so many. Knowing how to change and using state of the art technology as a change enabler will prove to be key in this process. Having the right priorities, focus areas, and direction will have a positive, orchestrative effect and conversely the lack of the right analytics to guide this decision process will leave you sub-optimized or worse, functionally crippled. If I leave you with nothing more here, please consider customer experience as a change management job more so than simply a measurement one. We all need data to make our decisions, true point, but don't assume that just because you have invested in a state of the art NPS program, that this alone will be enough to make an impact.

How do you take a resistant team and guide them through a successful transformation? I led a team that went from evaluating programs to developing them—a complete transformation. At first, there was a lot of pushback, but by understanding their concerns and using a thoughtful approach, we made the transition work.   ---Here’s what I learned--- 🔸Resistance isn’t about the change—it’s about fear of loss. Through candid one-on-one conversations, I discovered the team feared losing their expertise. 🔸Facts don’t inspire change. Stories do. Rather than overwhelm them with reasons for the shift, I shared stories. Emotional buy-in through storytelling sparked curiosity. 🔸Small behavioral nudges lead to lasting change. We didn’t push the team into full-scale program development right away. Instead, we used small steps that eased them into the transition. This made the change feel natural, not overwhelming. 🔸Your biggest resister can become your strongest advocate. I focused on the team’s informal leader—the person everyone trusted. Once he embraced the change, the rest followed. 🔸Embrace failure as a stepping stone to success. We reframed setbacks as learning opportunities. By openly discussing challenges and solutions, we created a culture where innovation thrived and fear of failure diminished. 🏡 Think of change like remodeling a house. Exciting, but full of unexpected snags. In business, it’s the same—something always comes up. Plan for it. Expect it. 💡 Key Lesson: Resistance isn’t a roadblock—it’s part of the process. Expect pushback and guide your team with strategic nudges. What unexpected challenges have you faced when leading change?

Want to immediately limit a Customer Success team's impact with customers? Keep designing processes, strategies, and engagement rhythms based on what YOU need and on YOUR timelines, rather than what customers need. Keep using inside out thinking that starts from your existing capabilities when deciding how to approach customers. In an era where customers are working with more SaaS vendors than ever before, they don't care about your internal timetables and how often you think certain milestones should happen (i.e. EBRs, etc). Between the rise in AI, pricing models based on consumption, and switching costs often being in the customers' favor, their concern isn't primarily how often their vendor thinks they should meet. If you want to maintain customer influence, try this instead: Anchor on the CUSTOMERS' lifecycle and business need, using this outside in thinking when designing a strategy. Rather than starting with what you need, start with understanding what your customer needs and what they're experiencing in their business. Are they in a phase where they're hyper focused on reducing costs and increasing efficiency? Are they building new AI strategies to get a competitive edge? Are they in a planning cycle, determining their next priorities? Start with questions like these, and then articulate how your product helps them accomplish whatever their priorities are. And set your engagement model to drive their priorities forward. You'll get way more buy in this way from customers, and paradoxically you'll also be more effective at achieving those milestones you think are important. Especially if you leverage your org's unique POV to advise on how customers can improve their business. Consider one example: EBRs. Option 1: you can dictate EBRs based on when you think they should happen in relation to renewal. Option 2: you trigger EBRs to occur after the completion of large project milestones, anchoring them on celebrating your champions' successes with their executive. Option 2 is significantly more likely to get your customers engaged. So let's commit to ending inside out thinking this year. Let's commit to anchoring on our customers' lifecycle and using outside in thinking. How do you guard against the drift we all feel to being inward looking? #SaaS #CustomerSuccess #GrowthMindset #Leadership