Somewhere this week I read or heard someone relay the proverb, ‘To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together.’
Its relevance might be lost on some however, for my clients leading customer-centric change it’s poignant, because we talk often about their transition from customer experience (cx) champion to cx enabler.
This is a conversation around evolving their role from championing the work to empowering others within their organisation to lead the work of improving experiences.
This can often be a difficult mindset development for them, given they have proudly pioneered the first stages of customer-centric cultural change; undertaking deep customer understanding by mapping the end-to-end journey and unpacking customer problems.
For them this has been a slog of politicking, navigating egos, battling on customer ownership, budgets and resources, and status quo attitudes to align and undertake the work cross-functionally.
These program leaders have done the hard yards and accepted the task of delivering quick cx wins and working on low hanging fruit as proof points to the business that this ‘customer experience stuff’ moves the customer satisfaction dial.
However, they know from our conversations that to really effect change, the type of transformational change that the organisation aspires and pledged to in their cx vision, they must transition from champion to enabler.
The role of cx enabler empowers others to drive change. Partnering service and product line management and functional group heads to lead customer-centric change and supporting them with customer data and insights, artefacts, communication materials, tools and education and training.
‘To go fast, go alone. To go far go together.’ When we all work together to make a difference in our customer’s lives it enhances value and drives growth.